The Angel Of Hope
by Rosa17
Summary: As I was saddened by the end of series 2, I wrote this, an adventure in the Holy Land. There will be flashbacks to series one and two within this story. Robin/Marian. Will/Djaq.
1. Chapter 1

The Angel Of Hope by Rosa17

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters

Part 1

Robin watched Thornton hobble out of the main hall, it was about time he pensioned him off but he had a feeling that the old faithful man would refuse. He sighed heavily and looked out of the window, it was a fine spring morning and the villagers were going about their business making Locksley one of the most prosperous villages in Nottingham.

Robin rose to stand and pushed the bench back then wandered to the rear window and became engrossed in thoughts. Thoughts of the past. Thoughts of Marian. Robin ran his hands over his bearded face and his fingers through his hair not hearing the thundering of hooves as Much drew up on his horse, nor did he acknowledge him burst through the door in an exuberant manner.

"Master! Master!" he gasped speaking loudly. When Robin did not move he shouted. "Robin!"

Robin turned at the sound of his name and smiled at his visitor. "Problems at Bonchurch? Or have you had a fight with Eve?" Robin asked him, his face more animated that usual but with dark rings under his eyes which never seemed to go away.

"Neither. I heard word from Allan that you were leaving and I wanted to know why? And where? Where are you going?" he asked. Confused and hurt that Robin had not confided in him about this and the fact Allan knew before he did, a man who his heart had never really forgiven for betrayal.

Robin walked the length of the room and back in silent contemplation, then turned and faced his oldest friend. "I am going to the Holy Land."

"Why?" asked Much totally puzzled. "I mean I know Djaq and Will are still there, but I hardly think you are going all that way to pay them a friendly visit. Have you had word from the King in France?"

"No I have not heard from Richard. And no, not to see Djaq and Will although while I am there……It would be good to see them again." He admitted thoughtfully, his eyes beginning to cloud over.

"Well yes if you do see them tell them it's not the same here without them." He replied. "So why are you going? You are going to tell me?"

Robin looked at him trying to form the words which seemed foolish in his own mind let alone speaking them out loud to Much.

"Much I….."

"Marian." Said Much as the penny dropped. "You are going back to see Marian….well not Marian, she's dead. You're going back to her grave? Why? It's been two years Robin. You have to get over her."

"I know. And that is why I am going. I need closure." He replied unconvincingly. They both knew he would never be over her, even if he did marry again.

"And you didn't get closure when she died in your arms?" Much asked. Then on seeing Robin's face fall his eyes return to their blank now normal appearance, he added. "Sorry, I was harsh."

"Yes you were. I need to go back. I have to do this Much." Robin said, fighting to keep his voice from breaking.

Much sighed resigned and told him. "Well if you really need to do this then I will go with you."

"No."

"What? You can not go alone."

"Yes I can. This is precisely why I did not tell you. I want and need to do this alone." Robin insisted reaching across the divide and placing a comforting hand on his friends shoulder. "And I need you here."

"Why? Why do you need me here and not by your side?" Much asked, hurt still ringing in his voice.

"Because as daft as it might sound I need someone to watch over my estate and I choose you."

"Oh," said Much feeling flattered by the revelation, "well, that is…. that is…..Of course I will. Allan isn't going with you is he?"

"No! I just said I am going alone and I meant it."

"When are you leaving?"

"Today."

"Now? That does not give us all time to bid you a proper farewell."

"I do not need a farewell I want to go quietly and return just the same."

"You will return, you're not just saying all this and then going to do something stupid? Because you know I know you can't live without her and I can't live without you."

"You have Eve now." Robin pointed out. "She makes you happy and that is good, how it should be."

"Is this about Henry of York wanting you to marry his fifteen year old daughter Caroline?" asked Much.

Robin shook his head and answered. "He is not the first to parade his daughter past my eyes in the last two years and I doubt he will be the last. No this is a personal quest I have to undertake Much, surely you understand." He pleaded, his eyes starting to glimmer with moisture, which he had fought so hard to keep back.

Much looked as if he was about to protest again but instead he nodded and told his master. "I understand, go. Do what you have to do. But promise me you will return. Locksley…England will not be the same without you."

This time it was Robin's turn to nod and he said, "I promise."

The men pulled each other towards themselves and embraced to give each other hope and encouragement that Robin would indeed return and maybe just maybe be more the man he was before Marian died.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for your comments.

Part 2

Much paced while Allan and Little John watched him, they were sitting in the Hall at Bonchurch and Eve sat in the far corner sewing. The day matched Much's mood, gone was the sun and in its place were heavy April showers.

"It is no good." He said finally to the duo before him. "I can not…..I mean…it has been two weeks."

"Yeah he is probably only in France. It's going to take longer than that to reach the Holy Land." Allan reasoned.

"I have been there twice before you know, which is once more than you and I am quite aware how far it is." Much told him crossly. Eve looked up from her sewing but he smiled at her to reassure her all was well.

"Well what did you want us to say?" asked Allan, who after a pause added. "I saw this coming I mean….."

"What he wants us to say is that we should go after him." Little John said methodically.

"To the Holy Land?" asked Allan in amazement. "What do we want to go back there for? My first experience of it was not that good, enough for me to know staying here is best."

"For him, for Robin. I know he said he wanted to go alone but really deep down I do not think he did, and not only that what if he does something stupid?" Much told them with a tone of desperation that they had lost their former leader forever.

"I think that if he was going to do 'something stupid' as you put it he would have done it a while ago. He did promise her remember?" Allan said.

"To carry on fighting, but the war is over." Much stressed.

"Yeah, but Prince John is still in England and the King is not. War could begin at the flip of a coin for all we know." Allan tried to argue with Much.

"This isn't about whether or not we go to war with Prince John and his cronies again, this is about Robin." Much pleaded. "Please think about it and if you will not go I surely will."

"Alone?" asked Little John with a worried expression.

"Yes." Much snapped back.

Little John looked thoughtfully at Allan who raised his eyebrows to the ceiling, shook his head and sighed, saying. "Alright I will go with you. John?"

"Yes I will come. But what of your promise to Robin and his estate?"

"Eve." Much said proudly and she left her sewing to join him by his side.

"Eve?" repeated Allan with a shrug.

"Eve will overlook the estates along with the Sheriff who is a kind man. I spoke to him already, he says that we need Robin back for Nottingham to flourish and gave his blessing that we might go and bring him back."

"Well," said Allan with thought. "This could work or go horribly wrong."

Two days later they had gathered everything together they needed for their trip. Much, Eve and the new Sheriff organised both estates with the hope that they would run smoothly until the men returned.

Eve and Much said an emotional farewell and Allan who was close by walked off and left them to it. Little John was standing with Luke the bow maker, Alice and Little Little John, the latter was not so little anymore and rapidly catching up with his father in height but not yet in breadth. He still retained his limp from an injury sustained in childhood but this did not hamper him in the slightest.

After they had returned from the Holy Land the two years ago and the war with the old Sheriff and Gisborne was over, John had searched for Alice and John, and brought them back to Locksley. However Alice would only agree to return with Luke with whom she had made a new relationship. While this broke John's heart he knew that it was to be endured, and part of him believed it was a punishment for leaving his family in the first place.

Now he was feeling heartbreak again for leaving them to go in search of Robin. John smiled at Luke who promised to watch over them and he embraced Alice. He was just about to hug his son when the young man spoke.

"Do not say goodbye for I am going with you." Little Little John said resolutely.

"No" said Little John, "it is too dangerous. This I will not have."

"This I have to do Father. I can help, if it is dangerous for me, it is dangerous for you."

Little John sighed and Allan put in. "Well he has a point, we need all the help we can get. Goodness knows what trouble we will run into this time and we haven't got Robin to rely on."

"That is what worries me." John replied troubled.

"Look Father I am good with the bow. I am young and I want to see the world. I am not going to see the world stuck here in Locksley."

"It is safe here in Locksley." John replied.

"But I want to be with you, spend time with my father."

John sighed, the last words hitting him like an arrow in the heart and he knew he truly could not refuse his son this request. He glanced at Much, he was still kissing Eve and so he looked to Allan instead.

"I've said my piece I think the boy should come." Allan answered.

"I am not a boy." Little Little John insisted.

"No but you are not yet a man either," Alice said softly.

"But I will be and this trip will help."

"There's some truth in that statement." Said Allan, who knew that if they did make it back alive Little Little John would surely be a man.

Little John nodded and so did Alice, and Little Little John beamed hugging them both as he added. "You will not regret this."

Little John seriously hoped that they wouldn't.

They left Locksley and rode down the Great North Road towards the south coast. Much and Allan were soon arguing to Little Little John's amusement and Little John's annoyance.

The latter growled softly and said. "This we can not have."

"What?" asked Allan, in all innocence.

"You two, we are barely out of Nottingham and you are already fighting like cat and dog."

"Oh, well we…" Much started to explain.

Little John cut him off mid sentence. "One of us has to be in charge and as we are lacking the true leader it will be me."

"Why not me?" asked Allan.

"Or me. It was my idea that we come in the first place." Much asked hurt.

"One. You two fight too much and Allan will argue your every decision Much. Two. I am the oldest and ugliest."

"I'm not being funny but I am not going to argue with you there." Allan replied, receiving a stony glare from their new leader.

Much muttered under his breath finally saying. "I still think it should be me, but I will go along with it, only because I think it would be what Robin would choose."

"Good." John said shortly and although Little Little John did not say anything he had a new respect for his father, who was already a giant in his young eyes. "Now let us get to the Holy Land, the sooner we are there the sooner we can bring Robin back."


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

Robin arrived tired and weary, part of him wanted to seek out Will and Djaq through a visit to Bassam's last known residence but he knew that he had another mission to fulfil first. He took a bed at an Inn and managed to converse well enough even though he had not spoken the language for over two years.

Robin had little sleep as he tossed and turned in his bed that night his mind occupied so much that sleep was denied him. He set out early the following morning on horseback for the deserted city of Emius.

As he approached he noticed how the buildings had deteriorated, some of them were missing whole walls now. He rode into the main square by the fountain which was cracked, and on one side overgrown with the only piece of foliage for miles. The whole place had an eerie feel to it, he felt as if he had stepped back in time twice. One part of him could hear the battle raging about him whereupon the city was initially wiped out by the Crusaders and the other part of him had him reliving Marian's last moments on earth.

Robin sank down into the sandy grit, he scooped up a handful and let it run through his fingers, and it petered quickly through like the passing of time. His heart clenched tightly with a pain that was not uncommon in him, he had felt it everyday since she had died. It was a pain which threatened to be released but he always kept it hidden within. But he had come here to try and lose it, let go of how he felt, let go of being strong all the time and finally free himself from his guilt and his grief that he had not saved her or had a happy life with her in Locksley.

He felt envy that everyone seemed happy in love except him. Much had his wife Eve. Allan had more than his fair share of pretty maidens but did not seem so apt at keeping them, and was perhaps commitment shy. Djaq had Will and visa versa, he was convinced that Will would have returned if they were not still together. And John, John was complicated. He still loved Alice but she was now committed to Luke the bow maker and while Robin knew she still held some feeling for John it was not the same. Their common bond now was their son, who was growing into a fine young man.

Robin stood and walked over to where he had held his wife in his arms as she died. There was no evidence of loss of life here, nothing to say that this marks the place where Robin of Locksley was widowed in tragic circumstances. Nothing. He knelt and this time ran his hand over the sand, imagining that she was still lying there, but she was not.

With that thought he remounted his horse and rode to the oasis where Much and Allan had dug her final resting place. This too was changed, no one would know there had been a burial or two here. Gone were the sand mounds, not that he had seen Marian's, only Carter's. It had been too painful and he had left them to bury her walking away and then feeling Much's comforting hand on his shoulder. The King had appeared saying that they should go back to the camp. He remembered Will and Djaq offering to finish the deed of laying her to rest and then he had not looked back. He just couldn't, but now two and a half years later he was here.

If anything there was a slight indentation to the ground where he thought he recalled Marian's grave to be, but he was not sure. He sat himself on a rock under the palm tree and stared at the sand in front of him. Robin had thought that coming here would hold the key to unlocking his grief but he realised he was sorely mistaken.

Robin rubbed his hands across his tired face before burying his face into them with a cry of frustration and anguish. Tears fell but did nothing to ease the pain in his heart, he realised that now nothing ever would.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

"Excuse me," the manservant said in Arabic to the couple who were dining the following evening. "But you have a visitor at the door. A Robin of Locksley."

"Robin?" Will asked of Djaq who shrugged in response, telling the servant to show the visitor in.

Will and Djaq both stood and waited for the visitor claiming to be their old leader show himself. Robin did and they were shocked at his appearance. He had always looked scruffy, they all had. And although he must have been travelling for months there was an unkempt air about him. Along with the horrific revelation that his eyes were haunted and almost dead, even though he smiled at them genuinely happy to meet with them once more.

They both embraced him, hardly daring to believe that he was here and certainly wondering why.

"You are alone?" asked Djaq, wiping away tears of joy at seeing him once more.

Robin nodded.

"You came all this way for a visit?" asked Will stunned.

Robin shook his head and replied. "I thought I could lay down ghosts and memories to rest. I was wrong."

Will and Djaq shared an uneasy look but it went unnoticed by Robin who was tired and hungry, he eyed the food on the table appreciatively.

"Come and join us," Will told him, patting him on the arm and leading him to the low table, where all three of them sat on large cushions on the floor.

He did not need a second invitation and they spent some time catching up with all that had been happening in Locksley, Nottingham and England since they were there themselves.

"So," Robin finally said. "What abut you both? What has been happening here?"

Again they shared a look and this time Robin did pick up on it, but put it down to deciding who was going to talk first.

"A lot," admitted Djaq shyly, adding with sadness. "Bassam died and now we live here and carry out his work for him."

"We are married," Will said carefully.

"And we have a daughter, she is almost a year." Djaq put in.

Robin smiled happy for them despite his heart plummeting further down to his boots. "What is her name?"

"Saflyya," Will said quietly sharing another sideways glance at his wife.

She sighed and added. "Saflyya Marian."

Robin nodded and looked down finding his plate most interesting. Will decided to change the subject. "How long are you here for? Where are you staying?"

Robin looked back up at them and shrugged. "I do not know."

"If you have no where to stay, they stay here with us." Will invited, and again Djaq shot him an odd look.

He in turn replied with one of his own to Djaq who said to Robin. "You are welcome to stay with us as long as you need to, I will get one of the servants to prepare you a room."


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5.

The sun shone through the open window with a blazing ferocity, and Robin blinked several times as he struggled to wake from his sleep. He staggered from his bed and looked out the window to ascertain the time of day. The sun was high in the sky suggesting it was around noon. He could not remember the last time he had slept half the day away, nor could he recall a sleep where he was not tormented by nightmares. Perhaps coming to the Holy Land had not been a mistake after all.

There was an ewer of water and a basin in the room and after he had washed and dressed he left the bedchamber and took a few tentative steps into the main house. He wandered around taking everything in that he had missed the previous night. Robin met with a house servant and after enquiring, learnt that Will and Djaq were out. But they were willing to serve him an early lunch or a late breakfast if he so wish. He nodded, suddenly realised he was starving.

After eating Robin roamed about again, it was clear that Will and Djaq would not be back any time soon. He walked through the mailing room which held all the pigeons and stroked a couple on the head, before moving on. He was contemplating going back to his room when he heard the faint sounds of a woman singing an English lullaby.

Curious he followed the sound, the nearer he got the more his mind played tricks on him that it was Marian singing. He shook his head and tilted it to one side but still the notes echoed through his head as the voice of his dead wife. The voice led him to a room; he could not see who was in there only that it led out to a balcony overlooking the square on which the house was built.

Part of him did not want to see but the other part could not help but look. Robin heard the gurgle and laughter of a child and guessed that perhaps it was Will and Djaq's daughter. But why have an English nursemaid? Silently he stepped closer and closer until he had full view of the occupants of the room.

Robin had been correct; the infant was most certainly Saflyya. The woman had her back to him but all he could think was Marian. She reminded him of Marian; the way her dark brown hair cascaded across her shoulders and back, her height, her build and certainly her voice. If only she would turn around and he could see her face. Robin berated himself for being so foolish to even consider that it was Marian, but his heart told him that it was.

The child looked in his direction, whether he moved or not he wasn't sure. But with her attention fixated on him and not the woman in whose arms she sat the woman began to turn also. Robin's heart hammered heavily in his chest; he felt glued to the floor but at the same time leant against the wall for support.

She, the woman smiled at him, her eyes did not fill with recognition and that alone puzzled him for unless he was still asleep and dreaming he was face to face with his heart, his love, his wife.


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6

"You must be Will and Djaq's guest." She said to him, her voice exactly how he remembered it. Yet it took a few moments to register in his befuddled mind that she had actually spoken, and not able to speak he nodded staring at her intently. Still she smiled and continued. "How rude of me I must introduce myself. My name is….."

"Marian," he whispered hoarsely, almost breathless.

"Yes," she replied. "How do you know that?" She regarded him astutely, and all manner of things thundered through his head like a freight train with brake failure.

"I….I…." he stuttered, lost for words as his mind worked over time to try and figure out how she was alive and talking with him.

The baby fidgeted and Marian sat her upon the floor before straightening to talk to this intriguing visitor who had captured her attention with a strange pull that she did not recognise.

"You knew me from before," she finally stated.

"Before?" he croaked out.

"Before….. When I lived in England."

"Oh," Robin replied, thankful that the wall held him up, for his feet were certainly not. "Yes I knew you then."

"I do not remember that part of my life," she added.

She sensed a magnetic tug towards him, something she had not experienced before. Not since her recovery from near death anyhow and felt the need to admit her lack of memory to the stranger in front of her.

Footsteps from along the hall neared and stopped as they reached them. Will and Djaq shared a worried look, it had only been a matter of time before this happened; now that Robin was staying with them.

The couple in front of them saw nothing but each other. One drinking in the fact that Marian was alive. The other wondering why she felt that she knew this man before her but not understanding why or how.

Will eventually cleared his throat while Djaq went and scooped up Saflyya into her embrace. She looked at Will who had not had response from Marian or Robin and he tried again, coughing louder this time and as Marian looked to him then in turn so did Robin.

"You are back," Marian said with a smile. "She has been a good girl as usual." She sensed an odd tension in the room between the guest and Will and Djaq and added. "Shall I take Saflyya for her afternoon nap?"

Djaq nodded and handed her back the baby, when she had gone and was out of earshot, the trio faced each other. Two of them, knowing that the third would be demanding some answers immediately.

"Tell me I am dreaming," Robin said, softly but with a tone that broke no argument or placating.

"No you are not dreaming, she is real." Djaq said as gently as she could, and reached out touching Robin's arm, but he flinched away from her unable to bear her touch.

With eyes filled with pain and tears he replied. "Then tell me I do not understand. When were you going to tell me?"

"We were going to tell you, when we felt you were ready. When you arrived here it was a shock." Explained Will.

"I bet it was," Robin replied, unable to keep the bitterness from his timbre.

"Robin…." Will said, remorse instant. "Robin, it is not that simple."

"No?" he questioned biting back most of his emotion, his hands clenched tightly at his sides and his body rigid with shock and betrayal.

"She does not know who she is…." Djaq put in.

"I realise that." Robin answered flatly but added with emotion far greater than he had ever displayed in front of them. "But that does not mean……..She is my wife."

They were suddenly interrupted by a servant. To whom Will said. "Not now."

He however whispered something to Will and Djaq who rapidly excused themselves.

Djaq turned to Robin at the last minute and said. "We will talk about this some more when you have calmed down. Go to your room, or for a walk and just think."

Robin looked at her with an expression that she could not read, but guessed it was not good thoughts flowing through him. He watched them walk away and finally moved to the balcony resting his palms upon the ledge for support. Looking out to the square below he allowed fresh tears to fall and wondered how he could get through this. Will and Djaq seemed to have no idea what turmoil this was putting on his heart. The revelation that Marian lived was something which he had not been expecting at all.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 7.

Robin met with Will and Djaq that evening in the dining area. He sat with them, not wanting to meet their gaze but finding he did as he asked. "Where is she?"

"Who?" asked Will blankly, Robin shot him a 'don't be stupid' look and he added. "Oh Marian."

"She is out." Said Djaq offering no more than that.

"Where?" asked Robin, who could not imagine where she would be this time of night alone in a foreign country.

Will and Djaq shared another look. "Well I suppose we ought to tell you, now you know." Will replied.

"Tell me what? I want to know why she is alive and neither of you took it upon yourselves to tell me, or at least send a messenger or a pigeon to England." He answered, hurt and confusion evident in every part of his being.

"It's not that simple," Will told him.

"Yes it is." Robin added, his voice gaining an octave as he spoke in desperate tones. "You know how I felt….feel about her. You know exactly what she means to me and yet you withheld something like this."

"When we realised she was breathing…..You had been hurt enough, what point was there telling you she still was breathing when it was very apparent she would in all likelihood die?" Djaq told him gently. "You were grieving we wanted to spare you further hurt."

"You have not." He replied bluntly but not without emotion. "So go on then tell me, tell me everything. I need to know."

"Where shall we start?" asked Will with a shrug.

"The beginning; after I laid her at the graveside and kissed her goodbye." He managed to get out with all the dignity he had left.

"After you left the oasis, before we buried her. I checked. I had a hunch. She came back from the brink of death once before, there was a chance she had the inner reserve to do so again and we realised she was still breathing. We did not think it was much point calling you or the others back and so we had her brought here." Djaq explained softly.

Robin waved his hand to interrupt and said with great difficulty. "So when you hugged me goodbye she was here, alive, breathing?"

Djaq nodded. "But gravely ill. We did not see reason of telling you for her to then 'die' all over again in your arms. She was not conscious; she did not know where she was."

He sighed heavily and then replied. "So you two staying wasn't just to be with your people was it Djaq?"

She shook her head. "No we could not leave her."

Robin sighed heavily and then told her. "Go on."

"She was very ill. The physician did not think she would live; we almost lost her more than once in those long weeks that followed. But still miraculously she held on. That was when it became known that in Bassam's house lay a foreign woman who was fighting for her life, that she had overcome death just before she was laid to rest."

"How did you explain her to the local populace?" Robin asked, knowing that her being here in itself was dangerous enough.

"We passed her off as my sister." Will interjected, speaking finally, having been silent for feeling guilty that they had not sought out Robin themselves as soon as she began to heal.

Robin nodded thinking that was believable enough. "Does she know she is not your sister?" he asked.

"Yes we have told her that we said that to keep her safe, she accepted it without question but then she was still recovering." Djaq answered. "When she finally woke she could not remember a thing about who she was and why she was in the Holy Land."

"But she did not suffer a head injury," stated Robin trying to fathom why memory loss would occur.

"Sometimes it is said, people who have suffered great trauma as she did, block out certain parts or all of their past. We have not told her more than was necessary, hoping that she would remember on her own." Djaq offered in way of explanation for their actions.

"What exactly did you tell her?" Robin demanded.

"Not a lot," said Will casually as he could muster.

"Which was?..." prompted Robin.

"We told her, her name, that she was a noble lady." Djaq explained. "And that she was brought to the Holy Land against her wishes and that we were her friends who came to search for her."

"That's it? That is all you told her?"

"Yes, as I said it is important she remembers for herself. You must not tell her either, promise me that as long as you are here you will let her remember by herself." Djaq insisted.

Robin spent some time chewing this over in his mind, finally he replied. "I promise, but I also promise that I will not leave here without her by my side as my wife."

Djaq nodded expecting nothing less and went on to add. "She became an icon to the general population when it was heard that she was recovering after seeing death in the face."

"That's when she got her name, people came to see her sitting on the balcony convalescing believing that if she could defy death then they with their minor aliments could too. A name she has lived up to ever since by helping those less fortunate than herself in a place that has very little to hope for and that is where she is tonight. Days too sometimes." Will added.

"A bit like the Nightwatchman except now Marian does not do what she did in secret or dressed as a masked man to help the poor and needy. She often works alongside the Knights Hospitaller. There is a special name for her." Djaq informed Robin.

"Does what? What name?" Robin asked, now intrigued more than cross or angered at the pair before him. Djaq ran off the name is clear Arabic, as Will started to translate Robin cut in with "….The Angel of Hope."


	8. Chapter 8

Part 8

Robin had one of the worst nights sleep ever. He had thought the night before returning to Emius was bad but it was nothing compared to the feelings which ran through his soul after finding out Marian still lived. Finally sleep claimed him and again he woke around noon, this time not feeling refreshed at all but nursing a headache that threatened to stay all day.

Once again he wandered through the house, met with a servant who asked him about breakfast and then he ate alone as he had done the previous day. Will and Djaq were no where in sight and he did not know whether to enquire of Marian or not. He chose the latter, his emotions were still all over the place, not that any of it was her fault.

Walking back to the sanctuary of his chamber he passed the room with the balcony. He stopped and stood stock still then walked backwards three paces so that he could see into it. To his amazement Marian was standing there looking over the square in deep contemplation. He studied her, pleased that he could without her knowing, but she, sensing him, turned and then smiled.

"You never told me your name yesterday," she said, nodding and inviting him to join her in the room.

"Djaq thinks you should remember things of the past in your own time." He replied, suddenly facing her, the one thing he wasn't sure he was ready for.

She frowned and replied. "I can not call you Djaq and Will's guest, for the duration your visit every time I want to address you can I?" she asked and he smiled she seemed to be her old self and yet he knew she wasn't in many ways.

"My name is Robin." He answered with a fresh smile.

"Robin," she echoed letting his name roll of her lips. "How long will you be staying here Robin?"

He sighed he could not believe how good it was to hear her say his name, even though she did not recognise him in the slightest. "As long as it takes." He told her.

"As long as what takes?" She asked him with interest.

"My mission," he replied evasively and she knew that he wasn't going to give any more on his mission right then.

"What do you do in England?" she asked, curiously.

He stared at her for a long moment and then decided to give her as little information as possible. "I am an Earl, I have an estate."

"And it can run without you?" she enquired.

"I left it in good hands in my absence."

She nodded seeming satisfied with his reply, aware that he was not going to give her answers to all the questions which were bubbling through her active brain. Marian stared at him for a long moment and he felt laid bare under her scrutinising gaze.

Finally she asked with a heavy sigh. "In England when I knew you, were we related?"

His eyes met hers full on and he knew that whatever she asked him he had to give her an honest reply despite what Djaq suggested or what he had promised.

"Marian……"

"We are aren't we? Are you my brother?"

"You were an only child." He honestly replied.

"Oh!" she said looking down at her hands and then meeting his gaze once more. "Are we cousins then?" He didn't trust himself to speak and so he shook his head in response. It was then he felt her really look at him, deep down into his soul and as a flicker of acknowledgement crossed her face she stated with certainty. "You are my husband."

"You remember?" he whispered with hope in his voice.

"No, no. I do not feel as if you are my brother or cousin and what else could you have been for I was a noble woman, I know that much."

This time it was his turn to sigh and said his voice thick with emotion. "Yes I am your husband. I thought you were dead, that you died in my arms."

"How long were we married?" She asked gently, automatically wiping the stray tear that ran down his face.

"A few moments not long enough, not nearly enough," he said his voice nothing more than the breath across her face.

She nodded; things seemed to fall into place, the way Will and Djaq her beloved friends had been since the unexpected arrival of Robin. Earl of wherever. They took a few tentative steps closer to each other, the air was intense and fuelled by a chemistry that he was familiar with, but which she could not recall, but someway deep in her heart knew pre-existed.

Robin did not mean to catch her face with his hand, nor did he mean to draw her mouth closer to his. When they were a mere whisper away she curled her hand instinctively about his neck and then he was kissing her, really kissing her and not dreaming about what it had been like. This was real, this was now and his heart wanted it to last forever.

Marian let go and indulged herself in the kiss, in the moment wanting it to last far longer than it would. He pulled away softly, his eyes reflecting all he felt for her and more and she wanted nothing more than to remember who she was and what this man meant to her. Neither aware that they were being watched by a man in the square below.


	9. Chapter 9

Thank you for your replies.

Part 9

A fortnight later and things were much the same as they had been when Robin first discovered Marian was still alive. She still disappeared at odd times of the day to help in a refuge run by the Knights Hospitaller, which opened it doors to the poor, starving, ill and homeless people of the city.

Marian still did not remember her past, although looked forward to talking with Robin. They spent long hours talking and he found he could laugh again from the bottom of his heart. He had little to say on who he knew, things he had done as a man. He spoke mostly of his nameless estate he clearly held dear, with a few anecdotes on his childhood, careful not to mention occasions when Marian had been present.

One night on her return from the refuge, the servants all retired to their beds Marian helped herself to a late night snack in the kitchen, then wandered down the passageway to her own chamber. She paused on the corridor side of Robin's room, then gingerly and silently opened his door. A shaft of light fell into the room from the candle in her hand and it landed on Robin's face as he lay sleeping. She leant against the door jamb and watched him, his face seemed untroubled in sleep and she smiled. Marian wished that just his presence sparked some recognition in her being of the past she had blocked out, but it did not and she sighed suddenly frustrated with her life and what it had become.

Marian as if on autopilot walked into the room and closed the door behind her. The candle lit up the blackness enough for her to see where she was heading. She sat upon the bed and laid the candle to rest on a rough hewn stool nearby, so that it still bathed Robin with its fiery beauty. Reaching forward she traced the line of his face with the pad of her fingertips. He began to stir and she repeated the action enjoying the feel of his face against her skin until he woke.

"Marian!" He said, sitting upright in bed and pulling the cover up to his neck. "What are you doing here?"

"Watching you," she replied as innocently as she could manage, faintly amused that she had visibly flustered him.

He took a deep breath and swallowed hard, the light seemed to make her more beautiful or perhaps it was just the fact that she was here with him now. Or maybe it was that his heart still beat only for her.

"You ought to go to bed," he told her, like as a parent scolding their small child.

She looked pointedly at him unimpressed with his comment and added. "That is why I am here."

"Marian," Robin answered, pulling the covers even higher so that his chin was hidden too. She snatched the sheet unexpectedly from him and he sat there looking at her, naked from the waist up and she caught sight of his scar, as the light illuminated it clearly.

"Where did you get that?" she asked, tentively reaching out and touching the rough skin, intermingled with smooth.

She openly admired his torso. He was glad that the hours he had put in of hard physical labour had honed his body. At the time it had been an outlet and a focus for his grief as he helped to rebuild the lives of those in Nottingham and beyond.

"The Crusades," he replied shortly, his breath snatched from him by her touch.

"I have scars." She said almost her herself with a resigned sigh.

"I know," Robin replied, his voice hardly audible.

"You know?" Marian asked, raising her eyebrows questioningly at him.

"When you 'died' in my arms you had been stabbed, that must have left one scar. The previous year you were also stabbed that time with a dagger which almost too cost you your life. I have not seen your scars I just know they are there." He explained, not adding that he was very aware of emotional scars she carried, which would count for the memory loss.

"Oh," she replied softly.

Unable to help himself he added. "All three were committed by the same man."

"The man who hurt me, hurt me twice? Did this to you?" she asked for confirmation.

Robin nodded. "Yes………. You need not worry he is now dead."

"Did you kill him?" she asked, her brow creasing to a frown.

"No, but I wanted to many times." He admitted honestly.

"For killing me?" Marian asked, and he nodded unable to trust himself to reply.

Finally he said. "So why are you here? In my room, in the middle of the night."

"You are my husband I am your wife should we not share a bed?"

"I do not think this is the time." He told her. "Will? Djaq?"

"What of them? I am married to you and no one else, according to both of them and you."

He smiled wryly at her and replied. "That is true."

"I want to know what it feels like to be held by you…to be touched by you, to be….."

"Stop!" he said more loudly than he intended, his mind telling him one thing, his heart and his body another.

"Robin! Are you always this infuriating?"

He laughed then and she realised that she like the tone of his humour. "We often infuriated each other." He confirmed.

"Oh," she smiled back and reached forward to draw him towards her. He hardly breathed as her hand caressed his neck and sent electric shock waves through his body. She added. "You know my mind does not remember you, but ever since that day we were alone on the balcony I realised my heart does."

"Marian…" he whispered his heart thundering so loudly in his ears he was sure Marian could hear it too.

Their lips met and mingled together, tasting, teasing and he drew her down upon the bed with him. The candle still illuminating them with an ethereal glow until it finally died, but with that came the light of the brand new day.


	10. Chapter 10

Part 10

The next morning Robin kissed Marian softly on her lips at the door of his room. They did not notice the servant, Rashid who ducked into the shadows watching them closely. Noticing every little detail including the fact that Robin the guest stood there naked from the waist up and Lady Marian stood there in her underclothes with her dress folded neatly over her arm. He came to a correct conclusion, with which he knew just what to do with.

Robin later walked into the living area and came across an angry looking duo, in the form of Will and Djaq.

"What?" he asked them shaking his head slightly; it seemed that whatever was bothering them would soon be out in the open.

"You!" Said Djaq.

"What you did was irresponsible." Will added.

"What? What are you talking about?" Robin asked them.

"Servants talk." Will said his face completely serious and Robin knew instantly what they were referring to.

"Then you should not listen and what I did, what we did was a joint decision."

"That's as maybe but…" Will tapered off.

"Until she remembers it is such a good idea?" Djaq interjected.

"I do not know. Will she ever remember? Are we to spend our lives not knowing from one day to the next if she will ever remember her past? To me she is the same woman I fell in love with. Things have changed but deep down I know it is the same. I can not leave the Holy Land without her. I can not, and will not live without my wife by my side."

Marian caught the last part of the conversation and stood hidden behind the recess of the door waiting to see what was said next. Much as she wanted to remember she could not and she had a vague recollection of someone once telling her that eavesdroppers heard no good about themselves. This however was a too good opportunity to miss and more than that she might learn more about Robin, Will and Djaq in the process.

"I am not saying that, I am saying that having marital relations with Marian could cause consequences, that I am not sure either of you are ready for right now emotionally." Djaq was quick to add.

"We are married." Robin stressed out to them, then with a sudden horrific thought added. "Her wound? Having a child would cause complications?...Death?"

"No more than any other woman. The sword did not penetrate there, but still we do not know what scarring she had inside, from either wound." Djaq told him honestly.

Robin let out a breath he had been holding and whispered. "Good. Discussion over."

"Not until you give us your word." Djaq continued.

"We are man and wife what we do is none of anyone else's business. Do I tell you how to live your life with Will? Did I make you return to England after I thought Marian had died? I can't live without her. Have you any idea how hard it has been these past two years. Have you?" He asked, his voice had risen in volume as he spoke until he was almost shouting at them Unaware that the dark rings under his eyes alone gave more away than he would ever know.

"Robin….We do not mean to…" Will said, trying to placate him.

With his voice now level he said. "Do not speak….. Shall I tell you what it had been like? It has been hell on earth. Sometimes I think that the man who 'killed' her got the better deal, he died, he can't feel what I felt everyday. And everyday that he lived I wanted to kill him to avenge Marian's death. But I did not, and that ate me up inside, each opportunity wasted and there were quite a few."

"Why didn't you?" asked Djaq with a look at Will who squeezed her hand tenderly.

"I did not kill him because I did not think that Marian would have wanted me to." He spat back on a roll now that his feelings were suddenly unleashed from the tight confines he had locked them into. A tear escaped but he did not even notice. "I watched Much fall in love and then I married them, I watched John get closer to his son. I watched Allan flirt with anything in a dress. I had to endure Earl after Earl parade their daughters before my eyes in the hope that I would choose one for a wife, for the now prosperous estate of Locksley….. I had to live with the guilt that I had not provided Marian with a sword and that I had not saved her life. We went to the Holy Land to rescue her and what happened? As far as I knew she died and part of that was my fault." He stopped, and wiped the tears with the cuff of his sleeve, disgusted with himself for letting them fall in front of an audience.

"Robin…" said Djaq softly touching his arm.

He flinched away and they both knew they had caused more damage to Robin at least by keeping her from him.

"We are sorry, we kept her here we thought it best. We hoped she would remember on her own. It seems we were wrong to do so now. But you have to understand we thought of the consequences that if we returned and you had remarried. Or been killed in the final mission from the King to eradicate the Sheriff, his sidekick and the Black Knights from the earth what were we to do with her then?"

"Marian is my wife, she would have been entitled to my estate while she lived at least." He told them softly.

"And would she want to live there without you?" asked Djaq.

"I don't know, she can't remember can she?" he cried back. With a sigh he slumped to his knees, drained as if all the life had been taken out of him. "All I know is that I can't live without her. I came here thinking if I visited her grave it would lay her to rest in my heart. It did not. And now…. now I know she is alive I can never leave or give up on her again."

There was a movement at the door and Will and Djaq turned but Robin steeped in his sorrow and heavy heart didn't even look up. Marian walked into the room.

"How long have you been there?" asked Djaq.

"Long enough," she replied softly walking over to Robin and she knelt down on the floor and enveloped him into her arms. Arms which he seemed to sink into, healing arms which would give him the strength to pull through the turmoil in his brain and the dull ache in his heart of betrayal.

"Marian…" Djaq began but she cut her off.

"Don't. I know you both had my best interests at heart and for that I am grateful. But you can not deny me the pleasure and the company of the man who is my husband. I admit I do not really know him, remember him, but I know that I would not have loved him if I thought he was anything but a good and honest man."

"He is and more." Will assured her.

"And therefore we belong together."

"Well that is very right and true," Djaq agreed. "We are just concerned that some things are too soon."

This time it was Marian who blinked back tears and she admitted to them. "I see you both, happy and more than once I wondered if there was a man out there with whom I could share my life with. Not knowing that all the time I was married. Every time I hold your daughter I wish I had my own child, I love Saflyya like a niece but my heart needs my own child to love too and if…we are lucky enough to be bestowed with such as gift then I am ready right now….Could you give us a moment alone please."

They looked at her with Robin encircled in her embrace and nodded wondering what was going to happen next, until a just over a fortnight ago their lives had been quiet and running smoothly.

Marian soothed Robin as he continued to tremble in his arms, shedding a tear of her own that even the return of her husband was not enough to make her recall who she really was. She wondered who Much, John, Allan were, not realising then that she was going to find out who they were sooner than she anticipated.


	11. Chapter 11

Part 11

Dusk was falling when Marian found Robin alone in the balcony room. He had his hands braced on the ledge and looked out onto the town before him, which was lit up by candles burning in each dwelling. He turned slightly and smiled at her before resuming his vigil over the rooftops.

"How are you feeling?" she asked softly, covering his hand with her own.

He sighed deeply and then replied. "Better than this morning….I didn't thank you…."

"It is not necessary," she said as they caught each others gaze and held it for a few seconds. Marian carefully moved closer and rested her cheek on his arm adding. "It's beautiful, the city, on night like this."

"Yes."

"I gather it was not like this when you were here last, from the conversation this morning."

Robin gave a small laugh and replied. "I take it you overheard more than Djaq would have wanted."

"It has brought many questions to mind yes. But I will not ask them of you, not now, not today. You have suffered enough."

He sighed again; there was more truth in that statement that anyone would ever realise.

"Marian…." He said huskily.

"Yes," she replied, moving her head and looking up at him.

Robin turned then and cupped her face with both his hands. "When I said thank you, I meant it."

"I know you did." She replied almost breathless as his thumb caressed her cheek.

Robin nodded and went on to add. "Do you wish I had not come here? I have complicated everything."

"You told Will and Djaq this morning that you would not leave the Holy Land without me, that you could not live without me by your side and now you are going to leave?"

"Only if you want me to."

"Without me?"

He shut his eyes and said. "I do not know. No, I do not want to leave without you. Will you come back with me, even if you do not remember who you are?"

Marian stared at him thoughtfully. "I am your wife, my place is by your side whether I know who I am, who you are, or not."

"You always were loyal once you had made a commitment." He whispered, his gaze going to her lips.

She smiled at him, their lips touched relighting the flame that they ignited right here on the balcony only two weeks before and were soon lost in each other.

Two men dressed in black, one tall and slender the other short and fat watched the couple on the balcony. They sat silently waiting and soon they were joined by a man in servant's attire; Rashid. He spoke softly in his native tongue, Arabic asking for the payment upfront.

"Half now, half when you have told us what you know of the man with the Angel of Hope." The tall one declared.

"He is English; he was here in the Crusades. Headed the King's guard for a time and saved his life."

"This gives us more reason to dispose of him and soon." The tall man called Imran said, adding. "How long is he staying?"

"Until she agrees to go back with him." The servant replied, trembling as he spoke.

"She?" Imran asked sharply.

"The Angel of Hope, he claims that she is his wife."

Imran shared a look with his companion who until now had been silent.

"This puts a whole new slant on it," the fat man called Jarrick said. "We have to get rid of him and soon."

"But not before we find out whether he has another mission in mind, from his King first." Imran declared. The two men looked at each other and nodded in agreement, while Rashid felt as if he had signed his life away for a few gold coins.


	12. Chapter 12

Part 12

The following morning Jarrick and Imran along with a handful of their mercenaries waited in the shadows outside of the residence of the Angel of Hope. They saw Marian leave alone with a bundle of clothes for the poor of the city early, and then sat back for what they were truly interested in. Their tolerance paid off when mid morning Will emerged with Robin of Locksley accompanying him.

The men silently followed keeping in the shadows, the English men in front of them seemed to be slightly at odds with each other but communicated nevertheless. Will led Robin straight through the market to the dwelling of the silversmith. Here they both entered and Jarrick, Imran and the men sunk into the milling crowd who were buying and selling wares at the market.

Patience was the mercenaries virtue as Will and his guest emerged a long while later and headed towards the refuge where Marian would be. Jarrick and Imran knew they had to strike before Will and Robin reached her. Will now knowing the city well took Robin on a shortcut which was going to prove to be their downfall.

Here in a quiet alley, Jarrick gave the signal to two of his men and they took Robin and Will by surprise. However the mercenaries were not prepared for the fighting expertise of Robin and Will as the pair worked together to throw each new attacker off. But Robin and Will were outnumbered at least seven to one and finally the mercenaries gained control of the fight, taking a captured Robin with them and leaving a concussed Will in the alley.

Late that afternoon Djaq was singing soft songs to Saflyya when a servant announced that there were strange visitors at the door.

"How are they strange?" asked Djaq, suddenly wary. Will was still out with Robin, and Marian was at the refuge, she drew her daughter close to her body.

"They are asking if Robin of Locksley has passed this way, like him they are English." The servant replied.

Djaq frowned and passed the child to the servant and said. "This I have to see for myself. You stay here with Saflyya." She added, handing the child to her.

Djaq reached the front door which had been closed for their safety and opened it, staring with disbelief at the four bedraggled men before her.

"Are you not going to welcome us in? We have had a tiresome journey and even if Robin is not here…a little refreshment would be wonderful." Much said to her.

She smiled then and enveloped him in a hug, then proceeded to hug Allan and Little John as well.

"This is my son, Little Little John. Do you remember him, he was but a boy when you last met," Little John said proudly and Djaq hugged him too.

"But," said Allan. "It was too long and confusing calling him Little Little John every time we spoke to him so we decided…."

"You decided." John cut in.

"Yeah well I decided to call him LJ."

"I like LJ," Little Little John said with a smile.

"Good because that is what we call you. Now can we please go in? I for one am exhausted." Much said.

Djac smiled, she had forgotten how much she had missed them in the first few months after they had returned home. "Come," she said softly. "There is someone I would like you all to meet."

Inside after they had deposited their belongings on the floor she led them to the main room and introduced them to Saflyya. They were intrigued by the little girl and Djaq instructed the servant to bring food, a meal for her new guests. With a backward glance towards the door of the room Djaq frowned worriedly and wondered where on earth Marian, Will and Robin could be for they all said they would be home by now.


	13. Chapter 13

Part 13

Djaq had put Saflyya to bed and they were all eating by the time Will appeared at the door, looking a little worse for wear. With torn clothes and a face and hands that were covered in bruises, dried blood and scratches.

"Where is Robin?" asked Djaq, standing, immediately touching a nasty cut on his face. Will flinched from the contact, and she asked the serving girl to fetch her medical box, so that she could tend to her husband.

"Robin is here?" asked Much. He was careful not to spit out the mouthful of food; it was so good to eat again after many months of scrounging food here and there.

"Well….." Said Djaq solemnly. "He left the house with Will this morning."

"How long has he been here?" asked Allan. In their need for nourishment the conversation of Robin's whereabouts had vanished.

"A couple of weeks." Djaq said, as she patched up a sorry looking Will.

"How did you find him?" asked Much. "I mean he was so……In England….So sad…so…… He thought he could put Marian behind him if he came back."

"Yes, he said." Will said with a serious nod. Adding. "Oww!" And grabbed the back of his head gingerly.

Djaq tutted and moved her fingers to find an egg sized lump sitting there and shook her head.

"So where is Robin now then?" asked Little Little John innocently.

Will began to look nervous. "Well…." He started to explain as the front door shut and he shared an ominous look with his wife that he was going to have to explain more than the disappearance of Robin, very shortly.

Marian hearing a number of voices speaking English wandered in that direction; in the dining area she came across a small party of men who were eating, Djaq who was stitching up a wound on Will's cheek, but no Robin.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Silence fell on the room as the gang dropped their food and mouths alike and stared at the vision before them. She watched their reaction puzzled and frowned at Will and Djaq, looking to them for answers.

"Marian…" Djaq said carefully looking to the stunned gang who were still sitting there like goldfish.

"Yes…" she replied. "Who are your guests? Are you going to introduce us?"

"Who are we?" asked Allan finding his voice first. "You know who we are."

Marian shook her head and replied. "No I am afraid I do not."

"Us, you do not know?" asked Little John, astonished in more ways than one.

Marian shook her head. "Should I know you?"

Djaq chose this moment to intervene. "Marian has no recollection of anything before she regained consciousness here in the Holy Land."

"I'm not being funny but let me get this straight. You are still alive and you don't remember anything?" Allan asked her, his eyes still wide that she was not dead.

"Nothing." She confirmed.

"Does Robin know?" asked Little John.

"Yes. He knows now. He didn't when he returned." Will admitted.

"Maybe you could introduce yourselves." Marian suggested.

"Without telling her too much information. We are still hoping Marian will remember everything by herself." Djaq told them in a warning tone.

"I'm Allan, Allan a Dale." Allan said nudging Much who was still in a trance. He didn't respond so John threw a goblet of wine across his face.

"What?" spluttered Much. "Are you trying to drown me?"

"If we had wanted to do that I would have thrown you overboard in the English Channel." Allan admitted somewhat dryly.

"I had a shock I thought I saw Marian." Much bit back in defence of his shocked behaviour.

"You did," said John, pointing in the direction of the lady in question.

"I did?" said Much, and with one look at her passed out where he was sitting.

John waved his hand impatiently and said to the occupants of the room. "Leave him, he'll come round in a minute then won't stop for breath. He is Much by the way. I am Little John."

"I am Little Little John, Little John's son." The youngest man answered.

"Call him LJ it is shorter and easier." Allan interjected hastily.

"We were Robin's men, along with Will and Djaq." Added Little John thinking Marian needed some sort of explanation of who they were and their relationship to each other.

"Except me," Little Little John informed her.

She nodded and said. "Are you sure Much will be alright?"

"Wakey, wakey," Allan said shaking Much a little.

Much opened his eyes and looked at him with a dumbfounded expression and said. "Please tell me I am dreaming, that Marian is a figment of my imagination?"

"No," Allan bluntly told him, "she is still here. You better get used to it."

Much sighed heavily and John helped him sit back up. Djaq brought the conversation back on track. "So Will tell us what happened to Robin?"

Will shook his head to clear it but instantly regretted it and pain shot through like a thousand arrows being fired at once. "They took him."

"Who?" asked Marian alarmed and everyone else echoed her question as it seemed to reverberate around the room.

"Saracen men dressed in black. Caught us unawares, we fought them Robin and I, there were too many. I just saw Robin being hauled away before the last man knocked me out."

Allan answered, "Men in black, if I didn't know better I would say it was Vasey and his little sidekick's work." Djaq shot him a 'too much information' look and indignantly Allan asked. "What?"

"Who is this Vasey and his sidekick?" Marian asked.

"It does not matter, they are both dead." Much replied. "They would not have instigated this."

"But who did?" asked Little Little John.

"That is what we intend to discover." Much added, now recovered from his shock as he was likely to be.


	14. Chapter 14

Part 14

The room was soon full of noise with chattering voices. Much for one was certainly making up for the lost time while he had been dumbfounded in shock. Marian kept silent, she felt the room sway and the people within it vanish as pictures, images and voices fluttered through her mind. Her head ached as if she was beginning to have a migraine and she sank to the floor her back against the wall as the images drew closer, and closer until they were almost real……..

"_He has gone," she found herself saying to an old man, whom she did not recognise._

"_To the Holy Land," the aged man said._

"_Yes with Much. I thought we were going to get married to live happily ever after, but now I know happily ever afters do not exist."_

"_Give him time, he might return home."_

"_Give him time?" Marian said feeling anger at Robin's departure and the cancellation of their engagement as she had thrown the ring back in his face in humiliation. She felt that she had regretted that action after she had committed it but there was no going back. Robin had left for the Holy Land and might never return……_

"Marian! Marian!" said Djaq, kneeling beside her and trying to rouse her.

Through the haze Marian began to see that she was still with Will and Djaq and Robin's friends. But then the pain in her head returned and she gave in to more images floating across her brain. This time she found herself riding at break neck speed through a forest…….

"_Robin! Robin!" she yelled with urgency, as she dismounted, still yelling his name and muttering under her breath about where he was. She pressed a lever in the side of a rock and a leaf roof lifted to reveal a dwelling in the core of the forest. But still there was no sight of him and she felt in her heart that she had embarked on a perilous mission._

"Marian! Marian!" Djaq' said insistently again and Marian forced herself back to the present. "Marian?" Djaq asked softly this time.

"I thought it was me who got the concussion," said Will half teasing her.

"I…." she began.

"You what?" asked Little Little John with a smile.

"I had a…my head it ached and then I remembered something." She told them with a troubled expression on her face.

"What did you remember?" asked Allan. "Tell us."

Marian sat back against the wall and brought her knees up resting her elbows on them, them and supported her face with her hands. She relived the two minor incidents that she recalled.

"Well it wasn't much was it?" Allan said, sitting back down at the table to finish his meal.

"It was a start." Cut in Much with a reassuring pat on the hand for her.

"It is the most we have had ever." Djaq declared.

"But it will not help us find Robin, will it?" Marian uttered with a sadness that surprised the newcomers but not Will and Djaq.

"No it will not. I for one knew it was my best decision to follow him out here. Look what a mess he has gotten himself into." Much said in a scolding tone to a man who was not even there.

"Yeah," said Allan slowly. "For once you were right."

"I am glad to hear you say that, eventually." He huffed back and Allan shrugged.

"A plan. We need a plan." Said Little John.

"Are you still in charge?" asked Little Little John to his father.

"You were in charge?" asked Will amused.

"Yes, someone had to keep those two from killing each other," he replied dryly of Allan and Much.

"I think we should work together, as a team, I can only think of Robin as the leader." Djaq answered.

"Except he isn't here." Allan interjected.

"No but we will find him," Much said as positively as he could muster. Adding. "Where shall we start?"

"By tracing Will's last steps with Robin," Marian suggested.

"But I told you all what happened." He protested.

"Then tell us again, with as much detail as you can remember." She replied softly and after a nod of agreement he did.


	15. Chapter 15

Part 15

Robin looked at his captors through slatted eyes; he did not want them to know he was awake. They had given him a headache to remember and he vaguely recalled seeing Will get more or less the same treatment but being left on the street to recover.

Robin was sitting on the hard floor with his hands and feet bound. He was in the corner of a large and stuffy room. Robin could not see out of the window to ascertain whether he was still in Acre or elsewhere, but it was dark suggesting night had fallen. There were three Saracen men at the far end, one of which who looked at Robin occasionally but that was all the attention they paid him. They spoke in soft Arabic tones and Robin managed to get the gist of their conversation. It unfortunately had nothing to do with him or anything he recognised, but might prove useful in the future, if he had one that was. His head pounding he shut his eyes, thought of Marian and let sleep claim him.

The following morning he was rudely awakened by a bucket of stagnant water being thrown in his face. He gagged and spat out a mouthful with a look of distaste, as the liquid stung the scratches he had been afflicted with the previous day.

The tall man who seemed to lead the other men, whom Robin had determined his name as Imran, asked him in reasonable English. "Tell us, what is your purpose here in the Holy Land?"

Robin squinted up at them, and blinked to clear the water droplets from his eyes. "I came to the Holy Land for personal reasons."

"Do not lie to us, we know who you are." Imran added and Robin raised his eyebrows at him questionably. "You are Robin of Locksley. Do you deny it?"

"No I do not." He replied as the fat man Jarrick chose to slap Robin across the face, but he didn't even flinch, so Jarrick repeated the action.

"I will ask again. What is your mission here? Has the King of England sent you to scout for possibilities for a fourth crusade?"

"No," Robin said shortly, feeling the back of the tubby man's hand once more.

"Then why are you here?"

"For a personal quest."

"Would that have anything to do with The Angel of Hope?" Imran asked. Robin's eyes narrowed but he remained silent.

"It is true then?" Jarrick asked him. "That the Angel of Hope is your wife?"

"She is my wife." Robin affirmed.

"To us she is the Angel of Hope and we can not allow you to take her away from us." Imran told him.

"She is not one of you, she is like me." Robin said quietly.

"But she is the Angel of Hope. I am not sure whether you realise all that she means to us in that capacity?"

Robin shrugged, he supposed he didn't Will and Djaq had only given him a short explanation. But he said. "She belongs with me."

"No you are wrong, she belongs where she is…nowhere else." Jarrick said with one final slap across his cheek, splitting the cut from yesterday and causing it to bleed down his face.

There was a small commotion downstairs and the men hurried away leaving him alone. They were gone a long while and they were too far away for Robin to hear what was being said. Finally there was a thundering of footsteps and Imran appeared, with four of his men.

"We have a visitor," he said. "A good friend of ours who passes by this way from time to time, says he knows you from England. He wants to say hello."

The men parted and Robin tried not to let it show that he was surprised at the newcomer, whom he believed had died about eighteen months ago.

"Well, well, well," Vasey said rubbing his hands together with glee. "What have we got here? Robin Hood, or should I say Robin of Locksley? I expect you are wondering why I am not dead? As you and the King, and everyone believed I was."

"That thought has crossed my mind," Robin said dryly. "But nothing you do or do not do surprises me anymore."

"I suppose you came here to lay your ghosts of Marian, pity she died."

If Robin was surprised that Vasey did not know the identity of the Angel of Hope he did not let it show, that was one thing that he could not let this vile man who had cheated death discover.


	16. Chapter 16

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Part 16

The gang and Marian sat around the table, food was laid out but not one of them had touched it, not even Much. They had gone over Will's account from the previous night countless times and nothing seemed to stick out.

"You were heading to the refuge?" Marian asked Will one final time.

"We have been over this and gotten nowhere." Allan said with a shake of his head.

"I was thinking," Marian continued. "I will go to the refuge they are expecting me anyway. I can ask if anyone saw anything or if there were any visitors who looked suspicious yesterday."

"We should go with you," said Much, pushing himself to stand.

"No," Marian replied with a shake of her head.

"But it might be dangerous." Will told her with concern.

"One of us should accompany you," agreed Djaq.

She smiled at them and replied with a quiet confidence that astounded the gang. "What if we are being watched by whoever took Robin? They will not harm me. They call me the Angel of Hope, because of that it is highly unlikely they will want me dead. If they see me with an unknown Englishman then they might take him to wherever Robin has gone and that will not help us to find him and we will have one more to rescue."

Will and Djaq shared a look and Will said. "Alright go alone."

She got up and bid the others farewell, optimistic that she would glean something from the outing.

After she had gone Much asked. "Why do they call her the Angel of Hope?"

Will and Djaq sat back down with them and began to retell the story that they had first told Robin only two short weeks ago.

One of Imran's men was indeed watching the house, after a tip off from the same servant as before, that there were more English men visiting at the house who knew Robin of Locksley. Imran still convinced that Robin was acting on his King's behalf sent one of his mercenaries to stake out the house and note anything out of the ordinary.

He saw the Angel of Hope leave alone and let that pass as she was heading in the direction of the refuge and he sank back into the shadows to wait once more.

Marian went about her work asking here and there discreet questions about Will and Robin. She was feeling frustrated some hours later that no one saw anything when a small street boy tugged on her dress for her to accompany him.

Frowning she was unsure but his urgency was overriding any doubts she had of venturing to parts of the city she had not set foot in before. With the small child taking her hand she allowed him to lead her through the narrow and winding streets of Acre to a house which was full of decay. With footsteps approaching he pulled her into a darkened alcove, they stood like statues their hearts hammering with nerves for fear of being caught in a place where they should not have ventured.

Three men arrived at the rotting house and knocked on the door, the man who stood in the middle was short and balding and for some reason feelings of hatred and detest filled Marian's mind. He turned and looked up the alley in which she and the boy had moments before been in and she got a good look at his features before he turned away and entered the building.

Marian's head began to pound like the previous day as flashes of mixed up memories jiggled about in her brain and she heard as if from a distance the man in black saying to her.

"_Robin Hood is dead!……The sanctimonious old fart and her father…You must be punished…….You read this announcement for me and we will see if we can get Daddy some dinner…..You tried to kill me……."_

The boy shook her back to the present as Marian tried to register the fact that if her memories were correct she had attempted to kill the man she had just seen, But Why? Why would she want to kill or hurt anyone? It wasn't in her nature, or she thought it wasn't. It was obvious she had failed to kill him and she wondered then in a flash of a moment about her life before.

The boy whistled softly and Marian heard a shuffling of feet, gradually a shrivelled old man appeared, looking older than life itself. The boy spoke in rapid Arabic to him pointing to Marian and she clearly heard him call her the Angel of Hope, with some of the other conversation intelligible too. The aged man nodded and squinted at her and then smiled as he replied to the boy and Marian watched them fascinated, but with one eye on the door of the house in which the unnamed man had gone.

Conversation done the man disappeared and the boy dragged Marian back the way they had come. When they were back in the refuge he passed the information onto an English man who had stayed in the Holy Land after the war and made it his home. The man then repeated everything the boy had told him to Marian in English. In order to help Marian find and bring back Robin, the man that her heart called her husband and her mind was slowly beginning to realise the same.


	17. Chapter 17

Part 17

The gang were relived when Marian walked through the door safe and well that evening. Much was sure that she didn't realise how Robin would react if she died again. Two close shaves with death were enough for any man who loved a woman as Robin loved Marian. They all sat round the table once again, this time picking at the food that was laid before them as they listened to what Marian had to tell them.

"………….What I want to know," Marian finished. "Was why do I feel I know that man I witnessed going to the house and why did strange words come to me. I could hear him, see him saying these things."

"What did he say?" asked Will.

"Do you remember anyone else with you when these things were said?" added Allan, thinking that might hold a clue to this mans identity.

"Well," she replied thinking back. "It happened fast like moving pictures running through my head, if that were possible. I was alone for some of them, once I was with the old man I saw before and the man who spoke called him my father, so I suppose he must have been. Some there was a tall man in black…I do not know who he was, it sparked no recollection in my mind at all. The man who spoke also said I tried to kill him. I didn't understand that."

"I am not being funny but to me it sounds like the old Sheriff Vasey. But he died didn't he?" Allan said directing the question to Little John and Much.

"We saw him carried out on a stretcher, he had been taken ill and died a natural death shortly before he was due to die by the noose," agreed Much.

"Did you see his face?" asked Djaq.

Much, Allan and Little John gave this some thought and John replied. "No we did not it was covered with cloth, prepared for burial the jailers said."

"Then he is still alive," shuddered Little Little John at the thought and knowledge of such a horrendous truth.

"Vasey," Much said slowly to get it into his mind. "Is still alive? What is he doing here?"

"No good I would imagine," Marian cut in.

They all looked at her and shrugged as she answered. "I do not know where that came from, it just slipped out. I think if I tried to kill him he can not have been a good man."

"He did not have a good bone in his body." Much told her.

"And you tried to kill him to protect the King." Allan informed Marian.

"If he is alive what about his lieutenant?" asked Djaq, speaking of Gisborne but not wanting to say his name in front of Marian.

"No he is certainly dead, we saw him hang." Clarified Much.

"All of you?" Will asked.

"Well yeah, me and Much and John. Robin wouldn't because of Marian; he walked away at the last minute." Allan confirmed.

"He wouldn't what because of me? See this unnamed man die?" Marian asked intrigued and puzzled by this information.

"That is something you will have to discuss with Robin yourself." Djaq declared, signalling that no more information was revealed on the subject.

"Right so we have the following," started Will. "The old man saw Robin taken to this house that the boy took Marian too." He looked at Marian and added. "Can you take us back there?"

Marian nodded and replied. "Yes."

"In this house the old man thought he saw Robin being taken, we now think that Vasey has been also. Both or either might still be there." Will concluded.

"I hope not both," Much said despairingly. "Just Robin would be good."

"So our plan is?" asked Allan.

"To go back there and see for ourselves." Marian replied firmly, with a positive attitude which the others were lacking.

"This I do not like," said Little John heavily while his son was looking keen eyed at the thought of the adventure ahead.


	18. Chapter 18

Part 18

Three hours later the gang, Marian and Little Little John were back at the house which the boy had led Marian to earlier that day. Allan and Will stole up the staircase which like a lot houses of the area was situated on the outside of the building. Marian and Little Little John dressed as local boys stole to the rear window on the ground floor. The rest of the gang watched from a safe distance. Little John feeling hot and scarcely able to breathe, even though the temperature had dropped really low, as his only child accompanied Marian on what could be a dangerous task.

"This I do not like," he muttered as he watched the pair slip in through the window.

"I can not say I like it much either. Robin will kill me….us if something happens to Marian now…I am sure of it." Much replied in an equally nervous way.

Once inside Marian signalled to Little Little John that they move silently across the room. This they did their footsteps making less noise than the scurrying of mice at their feet. At the doorway, Marian nodded to Little Little John to stay flat against the wall and she peered round slowly. The adjacent room was faintly illuminated by a light burning in the house next door. Like the room they were in this room was also void of human presence but there were some things scatted upon a coarse wooden table.

Marian beckoned Little Little John to follow her. He was caught up in the excitement of the mission and stumbled into a chair.

"Shush!" Marian said, her fingers across her lips to emphasise the point.

They stopped and listened for footsteps. When nothing was noted they continued to the table. Marian pulled a candle from her pocket and lit it to give them a clearer view.

Discarded were manuscripts in Arabic that Marian could not decipher with the exception of one or two words she had learnt since she had been in the Holy Land. She passed the candle to John and shuffled the papers into some semblance of order, then placed them within the confines of her clothes for safekeeping. Djaq could read them later.

John tapped her on the arm twice and she shot him a look as he pointed to outside. They strained their ears and sure enough voices and footsteps were heard approaching from the alleyway.

"Out! Now!" whispered Marian, heading John to the window.

He was reluctant to leave first but she nudged him in the direction of the window and he climbed over the sill and gingerly jumped to the ground, whereupon his father pulled him to the shadows.

"Where's Marian?" Much whispered earnestly.

"She was right behind me," Little Little John replied and followed the gaze of the others but there was no Marian in sight.

"I knew something like this would happen," Much declared totally concerned now.

"Wait," Djaq told them. "She is sensible, let us give her a little time."

Back inside Marian felt her mind racing, her heart beating and adrenaline pumping fast all over her body. It was if she recognised this thrill of danger and rejoiced in it, but without understanding why. She slipped from the window just as the newcomers entered the room and slid round the corner of the building, pressing herself against the wall so that she would be invisible in the darkness. She was in time to hear the tones of the man from her returning memory and clearly and without doubt she knew the voice belonged to the man whom she had tried to kill. The man known as Vasey, who had been the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Meanwhile Allan with Will in tow ran down the outer staircase and rejoined then gang waiting in the shadows, their minds filled with information that they needed to share with the gang once they were safely away.

From the house they heard a shout and then Vasey appeared at the window looking out into the night. He spoke in broken Arabic as he commanded his men to search the area for anyone who might have robbed him off the papers.

Marian crept back to the main group and with a simple and clear message Djaq who had understood Vasey said to them. "Split up, twos and threes, you know where to meet."

The gang needed no second telling and they divided into three groups heading each in a different direction. One led by Djaq, one by Will and the last by Marian. Each member of Robin's gang feeling the words Djaq had spoken as if their leader has uttered them himself.


	19. Chapter 19

Part 19

Panting Much almost fell through the door behind Will, glad to be in the sanctuary of Will and Djaq's home once more. It had taken them longer than he had liked to shake Vasey's men off their tail. He was not surprised to see that the others were already back and enjoying some light refreshment. Little Little John scooted over a bit and he sat down thankfully by his side.

"Thought we'd lost you two," Allan commented with his mouthful.

"Thank you for your concern," Much said cynically.

Sitting down Will asked. "So what's new?"

"These," said Djaq holding up the manuscripts.

"Interesting?" Will asked his wife.

"Very, not only do we have to find Robin, we have to stop Vasey in his tracks. He is making new and bigger plans than he had in England."

"So he failed there and now he is trying to gain power over here?" Allan replied.

"Yes, that about sums it up." Djaq confirmed. "It seems Vasey wants to have a position of influence along with a man named Osama, who is distantly related to Saladin…..I think."

"And no doubt there is more to Vasey's plan than that." Added Will thoughtfully.

"He probably wants to rule the country," Marian interjected and they all shot her a look. "What?" she asked, feeling unnerved by their expressions.

"Have you had another memory?" asked Djaq carefully.

"No, why did I say something?" She replied her brow furrowing slightly. "It just slipped out; it felt the natural thing to say."

"It was the natural thing to say. It is just what he is capable of," Will informed her and continued. "We didn't see much upstairs in the house this evening but Allan spotted blood on the floor, that was still damp to the touch."

Marian let out a little gasp while Much turned pale.

"No evidence that Robin was there?" asked Little John.

"None, the blood could have belonged to anyone," Allan admitted.

Marian frowned and wished again that things were either not a blank in her mind or a mixed jumble of pictures which did not seem to make sense. "So," she uttered. "What we need to do is find out who this Osama man is and what his purpose and ambitions are."

"You think he will lead us to Robin?" Much asked her.

"I do not know, what other leads have we got?" Marian replied honestly with a slight shrug.

"None," agreed Djaq.

"I'm not being funny but shouldn't we take turns to stakeout the joint where we went to tonight, something might crop up, or someone." Allan remarked.

"We should," agreed Little John with a heavy sigh.

"In pairs it is safer," Djaq added, nodding at Allan's and John's idea.

"We should start immediately then," Marian said eager to be doing something useful.

"I will go with you," Little Little John offered with a smile. He remembered Lady Marian from his childhood and thought she was still beautiful now he had reached his teens.

"No you will not," his father interjected.

"It's alright, I'll go with Marian," offered Allan.

Djaq and Will shared a look, and then Will replied. "Alright but look after her."

"I can look after…." Marian began to protest, then sighed not wanting to start an argument right then, took Allan by the arm and led him back to the house.

Robin stretched out on the bed he had been given in this new place they had taken him to. This was not in Acre he knew that, they had blindfolded him but he had worked it free so that he had some sort of view on the journey to his new prison and had recognised the place where they had stopped as Haifa, a town built on the slopes of Mount Carmel.

He was secured in an upper room, accessible only by steps on the outside of the property, the door was locked from the outside and his hands and feet were tied securely in thick rope. Apart from the bed, the room was not furnished. He shuffled to the window and looked to the street below. There standing guard at ground level were two men and he cast his eyes further a field in deep thought.

He thought of Marian; but not of their past, this time thoughts for the future together. Robin let the knowledge that she would go back home to England with him sink in. He could see why here they called her the Angel of Hope and the truth was now she was his Angel of Hope as well. For she was the only thing keeping him going and giving him reason to fight another day. Otherwise he might just have broken his promise to return home to Much and let these people who had kidnapped him, take his life so that he could find Marian in heaven.

"Think Robin think," he said to himself, shaking his foot as his boot felt uncomfortable and then remembered the reason why.

When he and Will had left that day they had been unarmed but he had slipped a small knife into the confines of his boot and there it was still. The men who held him had checked for other signs of weapons but not in his boot. Robin smiled to himself he had a plan, he was going to get out of this and it was only half a day walk back to Acre. Then he would take Marian back to England to be safe from the wrath of Vasey, who would most certainly kill her or plan to have her killed if he knew who she was.

Slowly with much difficulty he freed the knife from its hiding place and began to gnaw through the ropes on his feet, followed by the harder task of splitting the ropes on his wrists. That done he stowed the knife under his pillow and laid down with the lone blanket thrown across his body and gave the impression of a man asleep.

It was his advantage later that day when the guard brought him food. He sprung up and with one swift blow knocked the wind out of the man and with a smile ran down the stairs straight into the hefty body of Jarrick who was mounting the stairs methodically, with half a dozen men behind him.

Jarrick laughed as Robin groaned. The former saying in English. "You do have a purpose other than what you have already told us do you not Robin of Locksley?" And he signalled to his men to heave the prisoner back to his cell. Once there he added. "Well we have a purpose for you. To kill you would be too easy and not as painful as we would like, to make you live and watch you suffer would be better."

Jarrick nodded and Robin felt an unexpected punch to his gut, he doubled over and then faced an onslaught of blows. Finally when the punishment had ceased Robin said. "I will get out of here alive."

"Yes you will," Jarrick smirked, "but I do not think you will much like where you are going."

Robin squinted as the day light hurt his eyes; that was when he realised his whole body ached, like it had not ached for at least two years. He blinked several times and looked to see that this time he was chained to the wall by both one hand and foot. There was the back of a figure at the opposite end of the room and he knew who it was without seeing his face. Moving he rattled his chains and aggravated his bruises that were the result of the beating he had received the previous day.

The man then revealed himself and smiled slyly at his prisoner and said. "One more attempt to escape like that and you will die. Or was that your aim now Marian is dead?"

Robin's face flared in anger at the words thrown at him to deliberately cause pain, knowing his captor meant that she died from Gisborne's sword. He had to hide the truth that she lived and he scowled and turned his head to the wall, and Vasey just laughed.


	20. Chapter 20

Part 20

The house in the slums of Acre was still, there seemed to be no activity and after three days of constant vigil from either Marian and Allan or Little John and Much, they all began to feel as if it was a waste of time. Yet what other leads did they have? Djaq was still working on the Osama lead with nothing.

--

Djaq looked up from the manuscripts she was pouring over yet again in a vain attempt to uncover something they missed when she noticed Saflyya crawl out of the room. She sighed with frustration; this was the tenth time in as many minutes that she had been to retrieve Saflyya from disappearing from view.

Two servants caught her eye as she coaxed the infant back into the room, they were talking in hushed tones and looked suspicious as they seemed on edge and wary. She edged closer and overhead the word Osama. When Will and Little Little John arrived back from an errand they had run she sent them to tail one man known as Rashid as he left the house. They too were tailed by Imran's man who had been watching the house for days. He had missed several trips they had made out as he had been sleeping or taking refreshment at a local Inn, but this time he was determined to discover what they were up to.

Imran's man followed them through the market place and was irate to lose the man and boy as a cart of silks and satins crossed his path in front of them and then they became lost in the crowd. Sulking he made his way back to the house that had once belonged to the old man Bassam.

Will and Little Little John watched as the servant known as Rashid met with a man in black.

"Do you think that is Osama?" whispered Little Little John.

Will shrugged, and said. "Wait here. I will try and get closer to see if I can understand anything they say."

Little Little John did as he was asked and watched the conversation with interest noting that money was being exchanged from the man in black to the Rashid, this was most interesting indeed. Will sauntered back to him and nudged his elbow and they returned still following the servant back home.

"Well?" asked Djaq, pulling both men into the chamber she shared with Will, so that they would be safe from prying eyes and ears.

"He met with a man, dressed in black, similar to Vasey's men. They spoke. Rashid passed information to the unknown man."

"And was paid for it, handsomely" Little Little John inserted.

Djaq sighed then said. "Then we must to talk to him."

"And throw him out, he can not work for us if he is betraying our trust." Will replied.

"Perhaps but it might work in our favour to keep him on for the time being he could still prove useful." Djaq argued.

"We will see," Will said with a frown. The situation was fast becoming out of their control and certainly out of their depth. What they really needed right now was the one thing they didn't have; Robin.


	21. Chapter 21

Part 21

Marian and Allan were relived from their watch at the house in the slum by Little John and Much. It was dark and the temperature was dropping rapidly.

"Anything?" asked Much hopefully, but Allan shook his head.

"We need something and soon," commented Little John, while Marian just looked pensive.

"You alright?" Much suddenly asked her, she looked up at him and nodded.

"She's been quiet all day," Allan said filling them in.

"I am perfectly capable of talking for myself Allan," she bluntly replied. The men raised their eyebrows and she added. "What?"

"Nothing, you were always like that before, spoke your mind." Allan informed her.

"And I have a feeling you are going to speak your mind now," Much added, taking a step back in anticipation.

"No," she uttered with a sigh. "What I want to do is sleep. I have a headache."

"Oh!" Much replied. "Well you better go then."

John touched her gently on the arm however and said sensitively. "You have been having more flashbacks?"

She nodded and admitted. "Sometimes they make my head hurt. They come to me when I least expect it. It is confusing; the pieces do not seem to fit together."

"Well," said Much kindly. "We will help you to put it altogether. What we know of course. I have known you for many years, not as long as…."

"Robin," she filled in for him.

"Yes Robin." He agreed sadly. Wondering if they would ever find him and if they did, would he still be alive.

"Tell me then," she asked, looking to each man. "My father. I have visions of him in a position of power and yet I have images of him in a cell. I can not imagine what crime he committed to be incarcerated in that way. Is he still in jail?"

The men shared a look and Allan said. "Djaq said not to tell you too much."

"Yes but if it helps her remember it might help us find Robin." Much replied.

"I'm not being funny but I don't see your train of thought on that at all. But…." he waved his hand and added after a moments thought. "Perhaps now Marian is remembering things it wouldn't hurt to edge it along a bit."

"He was the Sheriff of Nottingham." John told her. "He was a good Sheriff, not like the one you saw recently."

"And how did he become a prisoner?" she enquired.

"Well I am not sure, but I think you did something as he was put in there to punish the pair of you." Allan explained.

"Oh what did I do?" Marian said to herself and frowned, she rubbed her temple, thinking too hard made everything worse.

"He is a peace now," John added, thinking she needed reassurance he was not rotting away in a dungeon.

"He is dead then," she said, her face falling sadly. "I felt that he was."

"He, Edward, you father died a hero, not in the dungeon." Much assured her.

"I hope you are not saying that just to make me feel better, for when I can remember I will recall also what you have just told me." She replied, with half a smile, eyen though her eyes brimmed with moisture.

"Much is right; he died a hero, to help save England from Vasey." John said.

"The man I saw?" Marian queried and John nodded.

John looked to Allan and said. "Take her back, a good night sleep is just what she needs. And Marian one day you will remember and you will not like everything that occurred to you, your father, to Robin, to Nottingham or to England."

John was right sleep had been the answer until the memories began sometime near dawn. Dreams of Vasey and of Robin with her father intermingled between. There were images of the man in black for which she had no name for or a face, just that he was dressed in black leather. She tossed and turned as she heard voices, they seemed to echo over one another and she could see herself, hear herself.

They were in the middle of what looked to be a village. A place her mind told her was Locksley. The man in black was dressed in some sort or armoured suit and was trying his best to kill Robin. It seemed Vasey was encouraging the unknown man to be done with the deed. She saw Much, Allan, Will, Djaq and Little John with their bows poised at the men of the Sheriff. She herself held a boy close to her and watched feeling helpless but trying frantically to think of a plan.

Marian relived the moment when she held the Smith at knife point to save Robin's life. She didn't understand the look Robin gave her as he walked away free and she found herself talking to the faceless man in black who claimed she had been trying to save the life of Robin Hood, which she denied. As she walked away the Sheriff stopped her and told her she would be punished, and then she remembered what he had done to her father.

On waking, the revelations had brought up more questions than it had answered. She realised she remembered just what Vasey was capable of and knew in an instant that Robin was not safe if he was in the same place as this man. She vowed then that whatever it took they would find him so that he could take her home to be together, where she knew, not only in her heart but in her mind and soul she belonged.


	22. Chapter 22

Thank you for your replies. It was good to get some feedback after a while without any.

Part 22

At the house, everyone including Little John and Much who had give up on watching any activity at the empty house, sat round the room with Rashid in the centre. He looked nervous and twiddled the cords of his tunic repeatedly. The expression on the faces of all those he looked at bode a bad omen and he knew his time betraying those who trusted him was up.

"Why?" Djaq threw at him anger in her tone and although most of the occupants in the room did not understand Arabic they knew they would get the gist of the majority of the conversation. "How much did they pay you? I know you were paid for the information. If you needed money that badly you should have spoken to me about it."

"It was not about the money. It was about the Angel of Hope." He insisted looking at Marian as he spoke. "She is our hope without her many would have not had the will to live. Without her we will be if Robin of Locksley had taken her back home with him."

"She belongs with him. I…we. Will and I were wrong not to have taken her home when she was first well enough to travel." Djaq sighed. He had been a servant in this household for many years and knew all the ins and outs of the private matters of those who dwelt there.

"But I and others believe you kept her here, because she had a purpose here in the Holy Land. She stared death in the face and lives to tell the tale."

"No exactly she can not remember her past as you well know."

"We believe, that she does not know her past for a reason and it is the future that matters. A future here, in our country with us."

"If you want a future at all you will have to answer some questions my friends and I have." She told him and he swallowed uneasily.

Djaq signalled to Little John and he did his best menacing and threatening look. Rashid's eyes filled with a new fear, and felt that if he spoke or not he was dead anyway.

"What do you want to know?" Rashid stammered out.

"Everything, where is Robin?" Marian replied in the man's native tongue. and the entire population of the room looked at her in surprise.

"I didn't know you understood Arabic? Let alone spoke it," Much said surprised.

"I have picked up a small amount of the language since I have been here." She offered as an explanation and he nodded.

"I do not know where he is," Rashid told them, his whole body beginning to tremble inside as the big man stepped closer with his staff in his hand.

"But you do know something," Djaq pushed.

He hesitated for a second and saw the shadow of the big man fall across him, then he replied. "He was taken by Imran and Jarrick; half cousin's to Saladin and his men."

Djaq looked at the gang and sighed heavily with a shake of her head.

"What?" asked Much. "Isn't that good news? I mean we know who took him now. Now we just have to take him back."

"No Much it is not." Djaq replied in English. "Do you know what Jarrick and his men are?"

"No I have never heard of him." He answered with a confused and puzzled expression and tone.

"They are extremists. Out for their own gain, not that of Saladin. They want to overthrow him and take his place, which is how Osama could be involved." Will explained.

"And why Vasey is involved with Osama," Djaq added, as things began to fall into place.

"Wait," said Allan needing clarification. "So you are saying that Robin has been taken by these men who want power in this their country and that Vasey is somehow corrupting them to believe he can help when he wants power of his own?"

"More or less," confirmed Will.

Rashid bit his lip nervously before deciding that he might just be able to live if he told them the next piece of information he knew and he confessed. "They think he might be here as a scout for his King, That his King might want to rise again with a fourth Crusade. Robin was taken to Haifa."

In Arabic Marian asked Rashid, with a calm voice that belied how she felt inside. "Robin, did they plan to kill him? Did you hand over information for a price so that you could have an innocent man put to death?"

Rashid shook his head and said. "I am sorry I did not stop to find out."

"So what's the plan now?" asked Allan, impatient and needing things to be decided.

"Rashid says Robin is in a town about twelve or fourteen miles away called Haifa." Djaq relied.

"We go to Haifa," John said firmly.

"And do what? How we gonna find him when we get there?" Allan asked.

Marian smiled and said. "I think perhaps it would be useful to take Rashid along."

"It will be safer to take him along, at least then we can keep an eye on him," Will added.

"We will all go?" asked Little Little John with great expectation, this trip to the Holy Land was more than he had ever dreamt about.

Little John studied him for a long moment and finally replied. "Yes it is safer for you to stay by my side."

"We will leave first light," declared Djaq. "Make sure you are all ready to leave tomorrow morning.


	23. Chapter 23

Thanks for your replies. It is encouraging.

Part 23

Marian could not sleep, pulling a robe about her body she wandered from her chamber to the balcony room. Here she closed her eyes and let the cool air wash across her face. She tried to relax put her mind at ease, but all that happened was a terrifying feeling that she would lose Robin before she remembered everything, about who they were and had been together.

Behind her eyelids more images raced past of Robin. This time they were at odds with each other outside what she now knew was her family home Knighton Hall, but something told her she had not resided there for some time even before she had left for the Holy Land. They were arguing about a wedding, it seemed she was to marry someone else and Robin was visibly upset, while she appeared resigned to her fate to save both the lives of herself and her father. His words echoed through her head. _"…You do not have to marry him." _Him? Who was he that she was going to marry but obviously had not?

She was practising her sword manoeuvres which did not surprise her now. She had experienced several flashbacks and seen herself fighting as well as any man. They parted, the tension between them not resolved and her mind clouded over only to clear at a different time. Here she was admonishing Robin for leaving her to fight in the Crusades. She could feel the emotion coursing through her, the hurt that he had left and the hurt that he had tried to saunter into her life back as if nothing had happened.

Marian turned and sank down to the floor her back against the wall and let one final moment fill her mind. To a dark cavern where she was laying injured on a rock and he said _"Because we should be together, I should never have left you I should never have gone to war, it was a mistake….Not as much as I regret going, not as much as I regret losing you…."_

She opened her eyes and stared at the wall opposite her and sighed deeply which did nothing to dispel the uneasiness in her mind for Robin's safety, or make her feel better about the returning memories. Marian had seen what a tormented soul Robin had been when he arrived and had shortly come to realise he had been submerged in grief for the loss of her life. Once he had gotten used to the idea that she was alive, she had seen his face change, his mood lighten and she knew without being conceited that it was because of her.

The feelings that her heart had told her head when she had first met him again, were growing with each day that passed. Even though now he was missing. It had taken her to lose him for the memories to return; maybe this was how it was meant to be. But it was cruel way too for it too happen, for as soon as they had been reunited he had been taken away from her and it seemed that not for the first time. She just hoped that it would be the last. Finding Robin was her first priority, remembering the rest of her past was the second and she firmly believed that the first would lead her to the latter and she would eventually understand why she had blocked it all out in the first place.

Robin rolled over in his bed, sleep evading him and wondered what had happened to Will that fateful day. His thoughts drifted to Marian, just when he thought his life was getting back on track he had been forced from her again. He truly hoped that Will, Djaq and Marian would not attempt a rescue mission for if Marian were to die this time, he just could not live without her. His captors had moved him so many times his trail would possibly be too difficult to trace, he was now in the hands of a man named Osama and he wondered how long it would be before he was exchanged into someone else's hands and disappeared off the face of the earth forever.


	24. Chapter 24

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Part 24

They reached Haifa late following afternoon. Will and Djaq had left Saflyya with her cousin who had taken the child to a secret location in case the house was raided or torched. When Marian heard of the threat of the house being burnt she was filled with angry words from the face and nameless man echoing through her mind. _"Come down now or I will torch your house….."_ Clarifying what her heart already knew, Knighton Hall no longer existed.

The guard who had been watching Will and Djaq's house had been snoring at his post when they tiptoed past. They knew at least that their escape from the house unnoticed would go in their favour in search of Robin.

The group moved through the city swiftly, wanting to keep a low profile. They snuck into a shady looking Inn and took rooms for the night. While they were there they took refreshment in the lower room, sitting dotted about in pairs. They hoped that this would prove useful and that they would glean some information, on either, Jarrick, Imran, Osama or Vasey.

When Rashid suddenly looked uncomfortable, Will signalled to Djaq and leaving Much at their table she appeared by Rashid. In a low voice she said to the traitorous servant. "Who has entered that you recognise?"

Rashid looked anywhere but at the man who had just walked in or the two for whom he had betrayed. "His name is Jarrick, he knows who you are. If he sees me with you he might be suspicious."

"You are our servant if he sees you with us he will think nothing of it." Will replied, his face like stone.

Rashid bit back an attempt to flee, which would have proved fruitless as he was tied to Will by his wrist. Djaq left the duo, going over to Little John and his son and then Marian and Allan, while Will signalled to Much to follow every move Jarrick made.

As Jarrick left so did, Much, Little John and Djaq closely behind him. Will took Rashid up to a room to keep an eye on him, while Marian and Little Little John remained in the lower room watching for anything suspicious.

Djaq and the men followed Jarrick to a home, of a man of wealth. Here they took it upon themselves to investigate further, and returned to the Inn with a little glimmer of hope that they were on the right trail to find their leader.


	25. Chapter 25

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Part 25

Marian scanned the faces of the other occupants of the room; they were still at the Inn, in Will and Djaq's chamber, having a meeting about their next strategic move. The previous night at Jarrick's house the trio had found by accident in a dark corner, Robin's small knife and overheard where his current location was. They all, bar Rashid had identical expressions written across their faces and Marian was glad they were all united in their assignment to bring him back safely.

"We have to go to this Osama's home then." She finally decided, after John and the others told the group that they had heard it mentioned that Robin, the veteran English crusader was there.

"It is not that simple," John said scratching the back of his head. "We found his home; it is unlike any other I have ever seen."

"It is the home of someone with money, with influence and with a lot of guards and servants to do his bidding." Djaq clarified.

"You can not go," Much said turning to Marian.

"Why?" she asked, ready to put her foot down, there was no way on earth they were leaving her behind.

"It is too dangerous, if you die…again…"

"Much. I am not going to die." She implored.

"Yes, well, we thought that last time and look what happened." he retorted.

"No what did happen?" she asked innocently. He shot her a look which said he too had promised Djaq he would let her remember by herself.

"Let's not argue about that, lets just rescue him and then get out of here," Allan stated.

"Get out of where?" asked Much.

"The Holy Land, I knew we would land in trouble if we left England again and I was right."

"You did not have to come along," Much told him haughtily.

"I was hardly going to let you come alone with Little John and LJ now was I?"

"Why? Would your presence make any difference?" Much threw back at him.

"Shut up!" Djaq shouted waving her hands for extra effect. "This is getting us nowhere."

"We need to know the layout and servant's movements and things like that," Will said, getting the conversation back to the rescue operation.

"And how are we going to do that?" asked Allan. "I am not volunteering to ask for work as a servant."

"If I may say something." Said Rashid, butting into the conversation.

"I think you have said enough already," said Much who understood some of what the man said and in this instance was referring to the information he had given away for Robin to have been taken from them.

"I can help," Rashid added ignoring Much.

"How?" asked Djaq, sharing a shrug and look with the gang.

"My uncle he worked for Osama, he has retired, he will help you get in and find your Robin of Locksley." He replied, having since betraying them found himself unexplainably contrite, maybe it was because the Angel of Hope had seemed so distressed.

"Where can we find him?" asked Will.

"I can take you there."

"Very well," Will nodded. "Let us go."

--

They wove their way swiftly through the streets of Haifa, choosing to stick together. Rashid and Will led, at the front of the line and Little John brought up the rear, making sure that Marian kept up with them all.

At a run down dwelling Rashid hammered on the door. A wizened woman opened it and welcomed him with open arms. Then she noticed his companions and the fact he was tied to one of them. She gabbled away so fast that Djaq had trouble keeping up with what she uttered. Finally after some explanation from Rashid, the little old woman pulled all of her guests into the house.

The home was a one room dwelling and now overcrowded, they sat down on the dusty floor wherever they was a space and were introduced to Samir, Rashid's Uncle.

"We need a layout of the mansion," Djaq explained. "We need to get in, find our leader and then make a hasty retreat."

Samir nodded. "Then your best way in is to waylay the laundry men who enter every week on a Thursday, you can hide your leader amongst the dirty washing and get him out of there alive."

"I'm not being funny but Thursday's tomorrow." Allan said.

"Good," said Marian. "We need him out of there and with us….with me."

If anyone noticed her last comment it was not replied to as they listened to Samir. He explained about the layout of the home and where the men stood guard, where Robin was likely to be held, and their chances of all getting out of there alive.

First thing the following morning the gang, including Rashid and Samir watched from a distance as the laundry men walked down a nearby alley. Samir had provided Djaq and Marian and Little Little John with some appropriate clothing. John nodded and Allan, Will, Djaq and Much took out the men with solid blows to their heads. Clothes were exchanged and then the men were tied and bound were dragged into a dark corner.

Posed as the usual men they approached the home of the Osama. It was three storeys high and had a courtyard surrounded by a high and guarded wall of one storey. Three walls also had flat roofs and living or servants quarters beneath them. Guards also stood on the flat roof of the main dwelling and Marian shuddered involuntary.

Little Little John who was at her side whispered. "It is alright we will keep you safe."

She smiled and said softly back. "It is not that I am worried about, but thank you."

They were granted entrance without question even though there were more in number than usual, each keeping their heads down and their faces unseen. Crossing the pleasant looking courtyard they made for the servants entrance and once secured within the walls of the house split up to find Robin once and for all.


	26. Chapter 26

Thank you for your replies.

Part 26

One half of the party consisted of Will, Djaq, Much, Allan and Rashid. The other was comprised of, Little John, his son, Marian and Samir. Will's group headed off to the most likely place Samir thought a prisoner would be and John's group went to the second. Will and his party made quick headway through the house. They all had a feeling that the gang were back together and they were on another mission from their home in Sherwood Forest. However this was nothing like that in many ways. They could hardly recall the last time they had to rescue Robin.

After knocking out two guards along the way they reached the room. It was on the third floor, and reached via an adjoining room, which was accessible by the traditional outside staircase that ran all the way from the ground to the roof above, providing access at each level. Here they encountered another guard and Much promptly knocked him unconscious as well. Allan then dived upon the man for the keys and soon discovered them on his belt.

Banging on the door urgently Will cried as loudly as he dared to. "Robin! Robin! Robin!"

Robin on the other side sat up, at first not believing Will was really there.

"Will!" he shouted back. "Will is that you? Get me out of here."

"We will hang on." Will replied "Allan give me the keys."

Will tried each key in the lock as fast as he could, his fingers trembling, his ears listening for anything untoward. Much became more agitated as the seconds ticked past. Allan and Djaq were on the look out for anyone heading in their direction. The final key turned the lock and Will crashed through the door and landed in Robin's lap as the chamber was no more than a box.

"Am I glad to see you," Robin told him. They shared a brief hug of relief before Will began to unpick Robin's chains.

Once Robin was outside the confines of the small prison Much hurled himself at his Master. But there was no time for Robin to try and reason why Allan and Much were there alongside Will and Djaq, as they all heard a shout from below of intruders in the house.

"Quick let's get back to Little John," Djaq said urgently. She tugged Rashid by the hand to make sure that he would not try an escape mission now.

Little John and his group stood next to the oversized laundry basket anxiously at the designated meeting place, after it was determined that their location was fruitless. Marian caught by the thrill of the moment and recognising that it was something she revelled in before was hit by a headache that sparked new recollection from the past.

"_The Nightwatchman………The Nightwatchman, get after him," the unknown man shouted. Marian had an image of Robin suspended over a pit and hoped she could help save his life._

_Marian knew she was the Nightwatchman she had experienced enough flashbacks for that to be established. She watched herself fight with the nameless man and he produced a dagger asking her if she remembered it. Finally she fled and then stood at the top of a turret._

_Then the man named Vasey shouted at her words which her heart took on board and shattered it into a thousand pieces. "You're wasting your time my friend, Robin Hood is already dead."_

As her mind was locked away in the flashback Will and the others returned with Robin.

"Marian?" Robin said laying his hand upon her shoulder. He was alarmed on one hand that the gang has chosen to bring her with them, and not surprised on the other for he knew she would have insisted. "Marian?" he asked again ready to give her a short hug but there was no response.

"I think she is having a flashback," supplied Little Little John. "We have not been able to converse with her for a while."

Robin looked to Djaq for answers, she replied. "Since you were taken it sparked something in her mind and she has been having brief recollections of who she is, of her past."

Robin nodded and they all except Marian turned as a shout was heard with thundering feet along the passageway.

"Quick," Robin said as Much handed him his weapons which had been hidden in the basket. "Much, Will, Allan with me, the rest of you leave as you planned."

"What about Marian?" asked Allan with concern, who was still in a world of her own.

Robin looked to the basket and Little John nodded, picking up Marian and hiding her within. The footsteps and shouts grew closer.

Robin added to Allan and Much as the others headed in the opposite direction. "Ready lads to create a decoy?" They nodded and Robin shouted to them as they faced the onslaught. "Go. Go. GO!"

Robin, Will, Much and Allan were caught up in the courtyard by Osama's men; they fought them off one at a time. Osama watched from the rooftop, he would not forget these three men who had come to set his prisoner free, their images would remain in his mind until he had disposed of all three of them. It was clear that this time they were going to get away. Nevertheless he set his remaining men after them through the streets of Haifa.

"Psssst!" Little John hissed at Robin and he skidded to a halt. "In here," Little John added.

Robin nodded to his companions and they all squeezed in a shaded recess between two buildings. It was soon apparent that everyone was in this little alcove and they all held their breaths waiting for Osama's men to pass them by.

Robin found himself squashed against Marian, she was alert now and she smiled at him, relief evident on her face that he was back. With that he also saw a new kind of recollection in her eyes and he knew without asking that she really knew who he was. She reached up and ran her fingertips across a cut, now healing that he had sustained while he had been held captive. He caught her fingers with his, kissing the back of her hand tenderly, despite the urgency and direness of the situation. Standing on tip toe Marian brushed her mouth across his lips unable to resist the temptation to have him as close to her as she could, if only for a few moments. Much sent them an 'Oh please' look but turned away and smiled, secretly pleased that Robin was happy once more.


	27. Chapter 27

Thank you.

Part 27

The gang reached Acre, and Will and Djaq's house by midnight. The man who had been watching them was snoring soundly as they all crept into the abode. Parting ways as they reached their chamber doors.

"Ummm Robin," said Much to the man he would always regard as his master. "Whilst you were missing, Allan and I slept in the room that Djaq gave for your use."

Robin chuckled and replied. "You may still do so, which of you drew the short straw for the floor?"

Allan looked highly unamused and answered. "I did, only so that I did not have to endure him moaning about how he isn't as young as he used to be and how hard and uncomfortable the floor is."

"If I may say so where will you go?" Much asked. His eyes widened as he realised where Robin would spend the night, from an intimate glance that Robin shared with Marian who was by his side. "Well have a good sleep, both of you." He added and Allan gave the pair a knowing smile.

--

Once inside the chamber, hidden from the outside world Marian moved and took him in her embrace. She felt him tremble and sigh as relief registered finally in his mind that he was free and safe in her arms. All the torture and torment of the past week was worth suffering, if he was now destined to spend the rest of his life with the only woman who truly understood him, as he understood her. The only woman he had loved to a point of desperation and uncontrollable grief when he believed she had died. But now he rejoiced that she lived for she was the only thing that made living worthwhile.

Sleep claimed them both almost as soon as their heads touched the pillow, despite previous plans to talk, to touch, to kiss, to love and to just be alone together. The light beaming through the window the following morning woke them, slowly, one at a time. Robin lay still, watching Marian sleep. He could still hardly believe she was alive and by his side and that he had escaped the clutches of Osama, his cousins and Vasey.

The gang would have to have a meeting and soon about Vasey and his new plot. It was one that certainly had to be stopped in its tracks. But for now that could wait until he and Marian had spent some time alone, and together, away from the gang and anyone else who would come barging into their private moment.

Marian woke to Robin's gaze fixed upon her and she smiled a little coyly, now she was remembering things about them it put a different slant on their relationship.

"I am glad you are back," she whispered.

"So am I," he replied with a cheeky grin and he could almost see her blush. Then more seriously he added in a softer tone. "I am glad that you are back too."

She shook her head slightly and replied. "I still do not remember everything…… and things are so muddled. No one will answer my questions…" she paused and sighed frustrated with herself.

Robin knew she did not need for him to tell her that things would return in their own good time, instead he replied. "What confuses you?"

Marian sighed. "Everything. I remember bits of almost everything, some things I remember clearly. Others are like walking through a fog and some things I have seem to have blocked entirely."

"Like what?" he asked with a soft shrug. He turned onto his side and levered himself up, bending his arm and hand as a rest for his head.

"The nameless, faceless man which no one will tell be about…He wears black leather…..He is a minion of Vasey the man who used to be Sheriff after my father. And I know he is the man who tried to kill me. I realised that today when we were in Osama's home. I saw him wave his dagger at me and ask me if I recalled it before. Why can't I remember more about him? Why can't I see his face ? Why?"

"Marian……" Robin said carefully. "He was the man who took your life….or so I thought. He thought….he believed he loved you…..I do not know exactly what you felt for him but you thought despite all the killing and the bad within him there was something good."

"Really?" she asked her brow creasing. "I have not come across it yet in my flashbacks."

A soft but short rumble of humour escaped Robin and he added. "I am sure you will, even when you lay injured from the wound that he inflicted upon you, you found something."

There was a short pause and then she said thoughtfully. "I remember being in the cave…with you. I remember you telling me that glory was not on the battlefield that you wished you had stayed. You said recently he was dead and you told Will and Djaq you had not watched him die. But the gang said that they had. "

His face drew a pattern of a mixture of emotions. "I could not watch him die. You once told me that no one deserved to hang and when he was about to….I remembered what you said and I could not watch…His death brought too many memories back of the day he killed you. Memories I attempt to forget but which still haunt my dreams even now……So I walked away."

"I told you he should not hang didn't I?" she asked and he nodded. "In the cave, I know I recall that. Whoever he is I know he burnt down my home…I know my father is dead….Have I no family left in England?"

"You have me," he replied, his voice a mere whisper.

"But you are here now and you always will be. Won't you?"

He nodded again, he had not expected they would be talking about Gisborne but he was perhaps beginning to understand where her mental block had derived from. The man who had 'killed' her with his sword had somehow forced her to block everything from her life into a little locked room in her mind where no one could touch her or hurt her again. His mind told him that she would not truly be herself until all her memory came back to face up to what Gisborne had done to her and he would remain with her every step of the way. Then they could move on and back to England where they belonged in Locksley.

She brought him back to the present as she uttered. "You were miles away, what were you thinking about?"

"You," he said with tender emotion, his free hand cupping her face and his thumb ran across feeling her soft satin cheek against his roughened skin.

"Remind me how it feels to be loved by you…we only had that one night together before you were snatched away." Marian said her eyes brimming with love and it was enough that she did not speak the words to him yet.

With his hand still caressing her face he whispered. "I love you my wife."

He replaced his fingers with his lips covering her face in small kisses and working his way to her lips. There he found her more than willing and he drew her deep and completely into a world that just consisted of the two of them. They shared a powerful force, a love that no one could come between, not even the figurative ghost of Gisborne.


	28. Chapter 28

Part 28

Robin called a meeting when he finally appeared from the chamber. This time it was way past noon, and he and Marian received knowing looks from not only the gang but from the servants as well. Everyone sat in the dining area for refreshments. Marian and Robin sat close, the connection between them evident.

"I asked you to meet with me here," Robin began seriously and then continued. "To ask you to help me. When I was captive I learnt things that my captors discussed in my presence in their native tongue, not aware that I could understand what was said. I also came across a man I thought was dead."

"Vasey." Much said. He shook his head as he conjured up a vision of the 'dead' man standing in the window of the run down house a few days ago.

"Yes Vasey. How did you know?" Robin asked.

"Marian saw him first although she did not recognise him then. We all saw him, we know he lives." Djaq added.

"And we know he is plotting with Osama to kill Saladin," Will added.

Robin looked at them impressed they had learnt so much.

"It all came about as we searched for you," Much explained. "Marian found, then took a letter from a house that you were taken to, Vasey arrived realised it was gone and roared like he used to do. Djaq read the letter that is how we know he is in cahoots with Osama. How did you find out about Vasey?"

"I had the pleasure of his company for a few days before they moved me to Osama's house. He is friends with Jarrick and his full cousin Imran. Imran and Jarrick are half cousins of Osama. And Imran, Jarrick and Osama are half cousins of Saladin." He replied dryly. "But we have one thing up on him and we have to ensure that we keep this step ahead of him….otherwise…"

"What thing?" asked Little Little John baffled.

"Vasey knows of the Angel of Hope," he explained turning to look at Marian and giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "What he doesn't know is the identity of the Angel of Hope and that is what we have to keep from him."

"Oh…Yes definitely, I mean if he found out it was Marian it could result in….. Oww!" Much replied looking pointedly at Allan who had kicked his leg sharply. "What did you do that for?"

"So you did not say something you would regret." He replied.

"Oh, well you did not have to kick so hard, I think I have bruised," said Much, continuing with. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to work out when Vasey, Jarrick, Imran, Osama plan to kill Saladin. Meanwhile it would not hurt to pay a visit to Saladin to warn him of the treason within his family." Robin said.

"I suppose we could stake out the house again, the one you were taken to, the one where we saw Vasey." Will suggested.

"We stood there for days before we found Robin nothing happened." Allan protested.

"Still," mused Robin. "Will is right just because it did not happen then does not mean that there will not be any activity there now."

Allan sighed and shrugged still feeling it was a pointless exercise but knew that Robin would not be shifted from his plans.

"So," said Marian thoughtfully. "We find Saladin, warn him, save his life, deal with Vasey and his little men and return to England."

"You will not be doing anything Marian." Robin snapped slightly and then watched her bristle and knew that his choice of words were not well chosen.

"I will. I will be by your side." She replied. Then with great effort not to let the others know a flashback was beginning to form she heard her own and Robin's words echo through her head in a previous disagreement…………_ "I don't need to be mollycoddled"_

"_Good because you're not going to get it here……Not you Marian you're staying here….Because this is not the Marian I know and love."_

"_This is who I am now," she insisted_

"_I hope not."_

………"_Well you disobeyed me." Robin added as time jumped on a little._

"_I saved your life."_

"_You kissed…."He said, but who he kissed she didn't know as the words replayed themselves in a scrambled muddle._

"_And you tied me up."_

"_And you could have got us all killed."_

"_I'm sorry I am not used to taking orders but I can learn. I like to be part of your gang."_

"_And I am not used to you being in the forest, but I'll learn."_

"_Truce?" she asked hopefully and with a mere spark of humour._

"_Yeah truce."_

"We will make sure she is armed appropriately," Djaq put in helpfully, when Marian did not retaliate but looked to be thinking again about her past.

"This time," added Will. "We will keep her safe."

They all watched Robin's face change a number of times and finally he agreed. And said to Marian who was now back in the present. "Yes it might be better that you stay where I can keep an eye on you."

Djaq winked at Marian and she just smiled as she ran back over the memory she had just recalled.


	29. Chapter 29

Thank you.

Part 29

"I just do not think it is the best idea," Marian said defiantly to Robin that evening. They stood alone locked in each others arms in the balcony room overlooking the sleeping city.

They all had spent most of the remainder of the day trying to decide the best plan of approaching Saladin and telling him his life was in danger by his own kin. Robin had finally decided that he and Djaq would draw near the mighty man and impart the grave news. Now Marian was having second thoughts upon the course of action.

"And you have a better idea?" he asked her, pulling away from the embrace they were in, missing her closeness instantly.

She took a step further apart and said. "Yes I do. Do you not think my idea might be the better option?"

"Depends what it is?" Robin replied with a shrug, willing to at least hear her out.

"You are taking Djaq because you feel she is the best link to the Holy Land, she can converse fluently and she knows her people's customs, traditions and culture. Which although you and I are aware of in part, we still do not truly understand their ways."

"Go on," he murmured.

"Well I agree I think Djaq should go, but I do not think you should."

"Who do you think should then?" Robin asked, knowing the answer in his mind but his heart fought to agree with him.

"Me."

"No. NO. NO!" he said, then shouted so loudly that Much came running into the room to see if everything was alright.

"We are having a minor disagreement," Marian told the manservant with a smile. "Go, he will calm down when I have reasoned with him."

"Go Much. Marian and I need to talk about this alone." Robin answered as Much unconvinced left them. Robin then added. "I will not calm down. Marian are you out of your mind?"

"Apparently, I still can not remember half of my life so I suppose the answer would be yes," she told him, noticing her touch of humour was unappreciated.

"Not in that sense, you know perfectly what I mean." He said loudly, then dropped his voice to a hissed whisper and added. "This is not going next door to ask them for flour to bake bread, this is dangerous."

"I know and I thrived on that danger once and I want to thrive on that feeling again." She said, her eyes lighting up with the flame that burned in her once before of the craving for adventure and dangerous games.

"I do not want you to, you can not." Robin uttered with a feeling of desperation well up from inside his soul.

Marian stepped closer to him and touched his face gently, running her fingers down the lines on his cheeks and she smiled and said. "I know you are scared. Scared that you will lose me again. I know that you can not bear that again. I almost could not bear being apart from you the past week either as new memories flooded my being. I began to realise who you were, who you are, what you did and what you do mean to me. But I am the best choice to go and visit Saladin with Djaq.

The people call me the Angel of Hope. I am someone they look to for healing, for survival, for life and I did not ask for that, it just happened. I am sure that even Saladin has had word of the Angel of Hope and what she means to the people of this town and beyond and for that reason alone I am the best choice to go and talk reason to Saladin."

He stared at her for a long moment and said finally. "Very well but we will all be there just to be on the safe side. But you, you and Djaq can speak with Saladin, but I will also be in the room."

She moved closer meeting him halfway and they took each other into an embrace and held each other close. He rested his chin atop of her head, while her ear pressed against his chest and found comfort in the beating of his heart. Now they were much closer in mind, memory and spirit than they had been when she had first discovered she was married, but still a long way to go before her demons and his nightmares were put to rest forever.


	30. Chapter 30

Part 30

The journey to Saladin's place of abode was without incident. On their arrival they were treated with much caution and suspicion despite the fact that Djaq spoke for them as a group. Their weapons were left at the entrance to the palace along with Much, Little John, his son, Allan and Will. Much instantly began to pace to the annoyance of the rest of the men. Robin, Marian and Djaq were led to the main building and were brought to the attention of Saladin's personal advisor.

Robin was on edge, Marian and Djaq could see it ooze out of every pore of his body. The latter sent him a 'calm down' look and the former moved closer to him and took his hand, disguising the fact from others within the folds of her skirts.

The personal advisor appeared and Djaq stated that they had information for Saladin's ears only and would not be fobbed off by his second in command. The advisor looked suitably put down and disappeared again, leaving the trio standing in the middle of a large ornate hall with a mosaic floor. It was an interesting and colourful picture depicting a warrior defending his estate.

Again the advisor returned still with no indication that Saladin would speak with them. Djaq repeated her plea and he looked at her with doubt in his features. Marian getting fed up of the waiting game stepped forward before Djaq or Robin could stop her.

In clear Arabic she said. "I am the one they call the Angel of Hope, I am sure Saladin will see me."

The advisor took a moment to study the woman before him. He had heard of the Angel of Hope, who hadn't in these parts? But he had never laid eyes on her. It was said that if you did lay eyes on her your ills would be gone and so he stared just that little bit longer than was polite and felt the hairs prickle of the back of his neck. He looked up to see the man who was accompanying the women give him a menacing stare of his own and wondered what relationship he had with the icon from Acre.

Hurriedly he retreated from where he had come from and the following time he made an appearance it was to usher them into the presence of the great Saladin himself.

The advisor took them to a small room in which Saladin was pacing the floor while his scribe sat at a table writing frantically. He acknowledged them and they bowed as was customary and waited for him to speak.

The advisor introduced the Angel of Hope and her companions, as her interpreter and bodyguard. This amused both Djaq and Robin for they had not given their purpose to why they were accompanying Marian at all.

He beckoned her forward while shooing away Robin and Djaq to the corner of the room.

"So tell me why you have come to see me?" he asked her.

Marian swallowed hard and hoped that her command of the Arabic language would be sufficient without calling upon Djaq, who stood urging her to speak to the man and be done with it.

"We, my friends and I have come to warn you of an imminent attack which will be made on you life."

"That is nothing new; men always want to kill me, for power, for a woman for land, for glory."

"This is treason, attempted regicide from you own kin." She added hesitantly.

"I take it you know who these men are?" he asked her, she looked at him confused and he repeated his words in English for her.

"Yes we know of their names. My companion has met them all." She added, pointing to Robin who looked to move closer but stopped displeased when Saladin commanded him to remain where he was.

"Tell me which of my many relatives plan to dispose of me this time?"

"Imran, Jarrick and Osama along with an evil man from England." She informed him.

He mulled this over for a few minutes and with each moment that ticked by Robin grew increasingly anxious.

Saladin spoke again and said. "I tell you what; I receive many suggestions that men are out to kill me. I have many soldiers whom I am fond of. Who I would not like seen killed on this mission to destroy the plans and the people who would take my life. But if you and your friends put a stop to this treason I will see that you are rewarded appropriately and you and your friends if you desired could spend the remainder of your years here in the Holy Land, safe under my protection that your lives would be spared from all who would otherwise see you as a threat."

"I am not threat to the people of this country. I have no plans to stay in the Holy Land forever," she told him softly with a small sideways glance at Robin.

"I see not, but I know the people of Acre would prefer it if you stayed."

She smiled and said "So they might but my place is alongside my husband and his estate is in England therefore, that is where I will be too."

"Mmmm," Saladin uttered. "But what about all those who hold you in esteem?"

"You say that if we complete this mission for you we will be as free men here, maybe I will come back and visit sometime." Marian compromised.

Saladin laughed, then dismissed them. No one was more relived than Robin to be back outside of the gate of the palace. They related all that had happened to the gang when they were a safe distance away.

Much being Much spoke his mind, the words which the others could not bring themselves to say or even think too much about. "I must say…this plan of Saladin for us to eradicate those who would murder him in his bed is foolhardy. Foolhardy. I hate foolishness like this. I hate it. It is a death sentence and no mistake and we are walking straight into what could very well be a trap."

With one backward glance at the manservant they all chorused. "Shut up Much!"

And Much smiled, it was nice to be wanted even if they were telling him to be quiet.


	31. Chapter 31

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Part 31.

Back in Acre, Allan and Little John knocked out and trussed up the man who was watching the house and sent him on a cart to Jerusalem, hoping that he would take his time returning to his vigil. Robin and Will returned to the silversmiths to check on his progress with Robin's request. Djaq went to bring back Saflyya into the fold and Marian took the remaining members of the gang to the refuge, with Rashid whom they still did not trust.

Later that night the gang headed off back to Djaq's without Marian as they spotted she had company in the form of Robin, who was lackadaisically propping himself against a column with his arms crossed.

Teasing as they walked by Much said. "Don't keep her out too late, I will worry."

Robin swatted him but missed as they passed him by and chuckled shaking his head, Marian appeared a short while later.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, pleased to see him.

"I wanted to see you?"

"You could have seen me back at Will and Djaq's," she pointed out.

"I could, but I wanted to be alone with you. Shall we?" he asked and offered his arm. She took it and they strolled off together.

"You know it is not really safe for you to be walking through the streets, especially with me." She commented.

"I think I can handle any adversary," he said with some smugness and she shook her head feeling that this was his normal confident self. Adding but refraining from showing the majority of concern from his tone, he said. "It is more dangerous for you, if Vasey discovers the true identity of the Angel of Hope……."

"So tell me why did you really want to walk me back?" Marian asked softly. Looking at him and meeting his eyes steadily.

"I told you….Alright I wanted to talk about….What do you remember about the day you died?" he asked.

"Oh," she sighed. "Well not a lot. It is still the same almost everything with the unknown man is a blank, you say he stabbed me that day and I suppose that is why I can still not recall, because it was him."

"Perhaps……."

"Perhaps if I could go to that place it would help," she mused looking thoughtful.

He stopped suddenly pulling her back as a small group of boys brushed quickly past them playing some game of chase with no thought of who they may collide with along the way.

"Emius, that was where I thought you died," Robin told her, his timbre husky in his still painful recollections of that day. "I thought we had found you and then all too soon you were gone." He added his voice fading away to almost nothing and she squeezed his arm tenderly.

"When we have defeated the old Sheriff then we should return there?" she questioned gently and he nodded. She stopped him from moving and pulled him into the shadow of a building so that they would not be seen while she kissed his soul better.


	32. Chapter 32

Part 32

The dream hit her around midnight, images floating across her already troubled mind and causing her to question what had really occurred in Emius that fateful day. She saw fragments of her life with Robin, bits of the unknown man all collaborating to ultimately climax in the Holy Land.

"_It's too dangerous……….For once just listen to me……………… I can't protect you in the castle." Robin urged._

"_Two minutes ago I thought you were dead and would have given anything for another chance to be with you….."_

"_Well then take that chance and come with me….."_

She forced her thoughts back to the present but did not succeed and was rewarded with another bought of memories from the past.

"_You don't have to do this," his voice desperate as before._

"_Yes I do, without me you wouldn't even know the Sheriff had a strong room."_

"_England needs me,"_

"_Yes England needs me, England needs us." She told him._

"_And I need you." he added kissing her softly._

The memories flashed again and she found herself deep in Sherwood in Robin's embrace.

"_I missed you……. Hey, We'll be together soon I promise……And Marian….promise me you won't do anything in Locksley alone."_

"_I promise…but the Nightwatchman might."'_

Marian again tried to come out of the dream but it took her darker and more deeply into the past she had buried within.

"_You saved my life I am grateful…..You save Robin too," the unknown man told her. _

"_That was incidental."_

"_Was it? Marian I have been assuming that since Hood became an outlaw you have had nothing further to do with him was I wrong to assume do that?...Because if you were associating with an outlaw the punishment would be more severe than house arrest, the punishment would be death."_

Time moved forward in a series of jumping pictures mingled in with images of her childhood and her mother's death. But again the memories brought her back to the unknown man. A fight with her and this man, and Allan was there and for that she wasn't sure why.

"_Lets find out who you really are." The unknown man snarled at her. Even in the recollection she felt herself flinch._

_--_

"_A year ago I put this dagger into the Nightwatchman's side, show me……Prepare the prisoner we return to Nottingham I have sent word to the Sheriff that we have captured the Nightwatchman."_

"_Guy," she heard herself plead._

"_Don't you speak to me," he ordered back at her and left._

--

"_I warned you the sentence will be death….It all fits, how you behaved with me, your little rides out to the forest…every moment that I thought you were a friend to me you were betraying me…….everyday that I grew more and more to love you, you were mocking me." Guy spat._

"_It wasn't like that I cared for you I still care for you." she felt herself say in a last bid to save her neck from the noose._

"_You are a liar…….."_

_--_

A tiny bit of her knew she had cared for him in some small way, just not the way he wanted her to care for him and not the way she loved Robin. In fact in that instant she knew she had risked her life to get closer to this man for Robin and his cause for justice and to protect the King.

_--_

"_She has escaped Guards stop her," he yelled and she found herself fighting him but it was no use._

_Allan was there and she still didn't understand why, as she challenged Guy to hang her himself. She told him that he didn't really know her but she was the Nightwatchman and had to do what was on her heart to help those less fortunate then herself._

"_The way that I followed mine…. Marian why did you have to put me in this position, did you even once understand what I was thinking feeling. When you left I thought I had lost you for good maybe it would have been if I had."_

She felt the door slam as if it was really happened right there and then and this time sat upright in bed and opened her eyes. Still frustrated that the man who spoke was faceless, but bore the Christian name of Guy. She sucked in large breaths of air and wondered if the chat with Robin earlier had somehow sparked this off and in a way was glad, the sooner she recalled all her past the better for everyone.

Marian felt him awaken before he spoke and his hand touched her forearm tenderly.

"Want to talk about it?" his voice gravelly from sleep asked her in the darkness.

"About what?" she whispered in return.

"The dream, the memory," he continued.

She lay back down and faced him on the pillow, his arm snaked around her waist and his hand rested comfortingly on her hip. Then she slowly told him all she remembered and he listened without interruption until she was done.

"Marian, the man who haunts your dreams…He is really dead and yes his first name was Guy. Not that I ever called him by it, and no I am not going to tell you the name I used. Djaq would kill me for one and secondly you need to remember that by yourself. It is important for it to be this way, I know that much."

"What about Allan? Why did I see him with this Guy man when he was in your gang?" She queried hoping that Robin would tell her that at least.

"He betrayed us….Me. In retrospect I think he was trapped and I refused to listen to his plea to stay with us after I caught him out. But I was scared. I was terrified."

"About what? That your lair in the woods be discovered." she asked puzzled.

"No. You. I was scared he would do something or say something about you being the Nightwatchman. And that he would be the reason you were taken away from me." He explained in a tone that made her feel as if losing her had ripped his heart out.

"Oh! And did he?"

"What do you think?" Robin asked gently.

"I think he did not, otherwise you would not have let him back in your gang." She returned, and the corners of his mouth lifted into half a smile, which was almost lost in the darkness of the room.

"He, Allan made a mistake, I made a bigger one. I didn't protect you." Robin finally uttered with sadness in his tone.

"I am sorry you had to live through the pain and grief of losing me," she told him.

"I can not bear it again," he replied his voice no more than a hoarse whisper.

"I will die one day," she replied lightly.

"Not until we are old and grey…I hope."

"Well one would hope but we never can tell can we?" she asked sadly thinking of those she had knew who had died when they were still very young.

"No……." he said, his voice dropping away and she reached for his hand and curled her fingers around it.

They laid there together in silence, locked in their own private thought. Marian moved and cuddled up to Robin her head upon his chest and still they remained motionless. In time his hand began to stroke her arm and moved slowly up to caress her neck then her face. She turned her head upwards and Robin took the opportunity to kiss her. Marian broke apart breathless and propped herself up over his chest. Clouds of her hair enveloped them in a cocoon, separating them from the world. Leaning down she kissed him, the sweet brush of her lips almost made him senseless and he delved his hand into her hair drawing her closer. She gave a small tremor of response and their love unfurled and united once more.


	33. Chapter 33

Part 33

Two days later the gang sent Rashid out, now working as a spy for them. He was followed by Robin and Little John to a meeting that had been arranged via a messenger coming to the house. Rashid met with Imran. Robin and Little John stood concealed, near enough to hear what was being said but far away to not be noticed. Money was exchanged and Robin followed Imran and John, Rashid when the Saracen men parted ways.

Rashid went back to the house but Imran went to the refuge and watched the Angel of Hope working in the sanctuary for the poor and needy there. Robin grimaced it was like déjà vu, except this time he wasn't watching Gisborne and he did not think Imran's motives were of the wooing nature.

Marian looked up and saw Robin and he willed her not to show recognition that he was there. She shot him a frown and moved swiftly away from what she was doing, skirting around the building and appeared at his back some moments later under the pretence of folding bandages.

"What is happening?" she whispered.

"Imran, is the third man down by the wall." He said back in hushed tones.

She took a secretive glance and uttered. "Oh, what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing, pretend I am not here and whatever you do, do not leave until Will comes to collect you." He ordered her.

"Will isn't coming to collect me." She replied her brow furrowing with confusion.

"He is now," Robin said as he raised his hood and disappeared out of the building.

Marian looked at his retreating form, she could take care of herself, she had been doing so here ever since she had been well enough. With a heavy sigh and one eye on the man Robin pointed out she resumed her tasks.

Robin outside caught a small tatty boy by the scruff of his neck and asked him act as a messenger to fetch Will, with the prospect for a monetary gain for the boy on his return. Then Robin skulked back watching Imran again, and was soon tapped on the arm by Will with the small boy looking pleadingly into Robin's face for his coins.

Robin handed them to the lad and told him to scoot and said to Will in hushed tones. "He is still here…hovering over Marian. He is planning something it is not safe for her to be in public unless she is accompanied by one of us."

"It is certainly not safe for her to be seen with you." Will added. "Sorry but it isn't. Imran and the others will be really mad you got away, to see the Angel of Hope with you will fire that anger…and if Vasey finds out."

"Let us pray he does not." Robin replied, a wave or worry crashing across his features.

"So are you staying here?" Will asked him.

"I want to see where he goes….But I have a feeling he will not leave until Marian does. When we are back at your home we need to have a meeting with Rashid. I overheard most of what was discussed between him and Imran but we need to plan our next move."

Will moved inside and found Marian, he called her name softly and she turned, still to see the man watching her.

"Oh," she uttered breezily to Will. "Is it time to leave?"

"Yes. I came to walk back with you as I was passing this way." He answered.

"Give me a moment and then we will go," she replied, giving the patient she was attending a gentle smile.

--

As soon as Will and Marian left they were aware of the man following them and it gave them a creepy chill up their backbones.

"Just look normal," Will told her.

"I am. So tell me what's really happening."

"I don't really know, we are going to talk about it when we get back." Will said.

"You mean Robin is going to tell us the plan when we get back. I doubt there will be much discussion on the subject."

"Well yeah, that's what I meant," said Will, mirroring the smile Marian gave him with a small chuckle. "Come on."

Just outside the house Imran frowned and wondered where his man had got to; he turned round and came face to face with Robin.

"Looking for someone?" he asked, his expression giving nothing away with the exception of a glint of distrust.

"You!" Imran responded.

Before he could react further Robin knocked him out with one blow and then proceeded to drag him into Will and Djaq's house.

"I hate this," said Much, eyeing their prisoner distastefully.

"This I do not like." Little John said.

"This I really do not like," added Little Little John.

"Just what are we to do with him now?" asked Allan.

"Give him a taste of his own medicine," Robin said hitting him again as he started to come round, preparing to strike him a third time by raising his arm.

"Robin no!" Marian said intervening and she held on his arm firmly to stop him hurting the criminal again. Her stare bore into his eyes and finally he shook her off and walked to the other side of the room. "Will said you had a plan." She added to try and calm him to think reasonably and rationally.

"Plan? There is a plan?" asked Much.

"Yes Much there is a plan." Robin declared.

"Which is?" Marian prompted.

"Rashid passed as little information as possible about my whereabouts to Imran, just as we asked him to." Robin explained, nodding to Rashid as way of thanks. Then said. "They are planning a meeting of their own which they want Rashid to attend. We will go to this meeting and stop them from killing Saladin. I will take Rashid's place."

"I'm not being funny but I am going to agree with Much. I hate this." Allan said. "But I know it is the only thing we can do."

"And in the meantime we need to release this man on the floor," Marian interjected.

"So he can go on killing innocent victims?" Much asked, with a shake of his head in disbelief.

Robin shook his head and said. "No Marian is right. Even though Imran is bent on kidnapping her to protect her from me, he needs on this occasion to be set free. John, take him somewhere on the other side of town and give him a headache he will remember."

"So we will all go?" Little Little John asked expectantly.

Robin looked at them each in turn. "I can not make you accompany me; it is your choice, even you LJ. Whatever your father says to the contrary."

"Even me?" Marian asked Robin, challengingly.

Allan nodded in the direction of Robin and Marian and the others all filed from the room, following Little John who was laden with the burden of carrying Imran.

Robin sighed and said. "As much as I would like you to stay here in the sanctuary of Will and Djaq's home I fear for your safety. The only way I can believe you are safe is by my side even if we have to fight. But you will have weapons this time….I….."

She walked over to him and took his fisted hands with hers, soothing, rubbing until they opened and clasped hers within his long fingers.

"Robin whatever happens……I want you to know I love you." She reached up and caressed his cheek where a bruise was slowly fading to yellow and kissed him gently upon the cheek. "Even if one of us passes before the other we will remain in each others hearts for a lifetime."

He returned a smile his heart heavy but pulled her into his arms just the same, for one more moment of holding her was another moment to store in his heart to treasure.


	34. Chapter 34

Part 34

The following week, the gang with Rashid tagging along arrived at their destination; Osama's Palace. They hid by the nearest dwelling and disguised themselves. Robin dressed to look like Rashid with a covering across his head and eyes. Everyone else dressed as carpenters. Rashid had told them that Imran had been asking on Osama's behalf for a good carpenter and men, to repair some damage that was caused when their captive escaped.

Robin entered first through the main gate, then some moments later he was followed by the gang. From their visit seven days ago they knew the layout of the house well enough to find their way round without too much bother. A guard led the 'carpenters' to where the work needed to be carried out and Will got everyone working fast. Will, Little John and his son and Marian, worked on the appearance that they were carrying out the carpentry work. Rashid, Djaq, Allan and Much went to discover the room in which the meeting was taking place.

Once they found Robin sitting in the back of a fairly packed room of mainly Saracen men, they retreated into the corridor. Here they caught three serving men unawares, knocking them out and dragging them out of sight. Then they changed into their clothing, took up the platters they had been carrying, which were laden with refreshments for the meeting. They re-entered the room walking round as Rashid suggested was normal, offering the men fresh fruits.

As the attention dwindled on them Will and the others left their work and headed to locate Robin. They too intercepted men and woman carrying jugs of wine and entered the room disguised as servants.

There was a tension and quiet humming in the room. The meeting was just about to begin. The servants were permitted to stay to serve their wares. Osama opened the meeting and spoke of uniting the kingdom with a new rule. With he himself to be declared the new leader. He gave a speech that almost every man in the room was proud to hear and witness, of working together to overthrow Saladin at the first possible opportunity.

Vasey sat at his right hand looking pleased with himself, while Imran and Jarrick sat to his left.

Will, shot a look in Robin's direction but he shook his head slightly as if to say not yet. Much tried to stay still but was beginning to feel jittery. He received a stern look from Allan which caused him to drop his platter of fruit and the silver plate clattered to the floor with a noisy crash. Everyone turned and looked and Much raised his eyes from the floor to meet with the triumphant stare of Vasey.

"You!" Vasey said to him. "If you are here, your master will not be far away."

Much quivered as Vasey beckoned him to the front of the room and took him by the collar of his tunic.

"Oh no," muttered Marian under her breath.

"My sentiments exactly," added Little John who stood at her side.

They all glanced discreetly at Robin who gave them the signal to remain motionless.

"I was hoping never to set eyes on you again, you halfwit!" Vasey shouted at Much. "But as you are here we might be able to dispose of you and your leader once and for all. And if you are here, then no doubt the rest of Hood's little army are here as well."

Marian took an intake of breath positive that the whole room could hear her. This was not going as planned and she hoped that Robin was forming some back up plan in his head right now. Much looked suitably terrified. The expressions on the faces of the rest of the gang were anxious and worried, that this was not going to be as easy as they thought it would be. Sensing movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned her head to see Rashid slip out of the room. That was not a good sign and she silently followed him.

There was a murmur of conversation between Vasey and his three Saracen cronies. Finally Osama said, "Robin of Locksley come forward now and your man will live. Do not, and he will die."

Silence fell on the room and Jarrick ordered a guard to hold Much at knifepoint.

"I would do as he asks," Vasey added. "If I know you as well as I think I do Hood, the only reason you are here is to stop us killing the one man we must." There was more silence, heavy with anticipation that this Robin would step forward and save his servant.

With a sigh and a short shake of his head Robin stood and revealed himself. His poised his bow and arrow at the guard, ready to strike if he moved a muscle.

"Call your man off Osama, or he will be the one to die today." He said, loud and clearly from his position in the back of the room.

Osama did not look worried in the slightest and said "You have already killed some of my men in escaping from these walls. I hardly feel the loss of one more will make much difference to me and my ambitions."

Osama nodded to his guard but he was instantly cut off in his prime by Robin, and Much scampered to the side by Little John and his son.

"Aha! Two more faces I remember," said Vasey. "Did you bring your entire gang with you Hood?"

"No I came to the Holy land by myself…..They followed."

"You except me to believe that?" he said with an evil laugh. "And what do you think you will achieve here today?"

"I am going to kill you. You should have been dead many times over and yet you still live. You and your friends do not deserve to walk upon the face of the earth for one day more."

"Still cut up about Marian's death? I know that must have cost you dearly. It cost Gisborne too, but he is not here to endure the pain like you are. Everyday for you, must be torture." He added, laughing again as Robin's expression grew impossible to read.

Robin looked to the gang, he could see them all except Marian and he looked at John asking where she had gone. John glanced to his side and for the first time realised she was missing.

"Looking for something?" drawled Imran casually.

"The Angel of Hope, what have you done with her?" Robin asked through gritted teeth.

"Nothing, we did not even realise she was here." He replied, adding. "You have not had the pleasure of her meeting her, have you Vasey?"

Much's palms began to sweat and he pulled the top of his undershirt away from his neck with nervous expectancy. While Allan let out a long breath, sharing a look of fear with Will.

"No I can not say I have," Vasey answered.

At that moment Marian with Rashid tight in her grasp returned to the room. Vasey stared opened mouthed at the sight and Jarrick said. "This Vasey is the Angel of Hope. Our hope, the hope of the people of Acre. And she must stay in the Holy Land for our people to not lose their hope in life or death."

"The Angel of Hope," croaked out Vasey, shock visibly radiating through him. "You! You're the Angel of Hope?... You are dead, you were dead…………….. Marian is the Angel of Hope?... And you Robin of Locksley knew she was alive?" He seemed for some moments to be stupefied but now things made sense in his mind and with one final command said in a tone which could not be ignored. "Kill them!"

It seemed his words and order carried weight for the men in the room drew their weapons and the gang shared a look with each other hoping that it was not going to be their last moment upon earth.


	35. Chapter 35

Part 35

The first clash of steel heralded a torrent of fighting and above the noise and melee Robin pointed to the exit and shouted. "That way!"

They fought their way down the staircase and were soon defending their lives in the extensive courtyard. Imran had Rashid cornered and Will spotted him just in time to run the plotting Saracen through with his sword, pulling the servant with him. Only to have Jarrick attack them from behind and he killed Rashid with a single strike. Will turned just in time to defend himself and Little John appeared to help him overpower and defeat Jarrick.

With two of the four men dead, the odds were faring better. The majority of the Saracen men who attended the meeting had no wish to die today and had sloped off to the stables to find their horses and flee. For the English men fought like warriors of the finest calibre.

Robin had one eye on what he was doing and the other on Marian who seemed under the circumstances to be coping fairly well. It was evident though that she did not possess the fighting strength she once had and that alone put her in peril. Guards surged towards her, despite the fact she was the Angel of Hope, as they acted the command that was issued to them, who she was at that moment had no bearing on the consequences of their actions.

Vasey looked down on the proceedings from the upper room, he was staying well out of it, but as he stood there and as the fighting men decreased he went in search of a weapon and came back with a crossbow and arrows. He scanned the yard below for a target. There were plenty to choose from and in all honesty any of Hood's men would do to be the first victim. But in his mind there was only one target, the person that Guy had failed to kill over two years ago. The woman who had tried to take his life, well he was now going to take hers.

A shout from above gained Robin's attention and he noticed Vasey with his bow poised and arrow fired and followed his line of vision, which took him to Marian.

"MARIAN!" he yelled, running in her direction as fast as he was able.

She paused, glanced at Robin and moved slightly, enough for the arrow to just skim across her shoulder, tearing her clothes and grazing her.

"Argh!" Robin shouted, getting the brunt of the arrow in his own arm just below his shoulder.

"Robin!" Marian shouted back alarmed, but Much turned her to defend herself against a guard who had appeared and she was soon fighting again.

Robin gritted his teeth, and yanked the head of the arrow from his body and threw it on the ground in distaste. In a pain that was throbbing and deterring his concentration, aim and strength he loaded his own bow to fire an arrow straight into Vasey's heart. The former Sheriff tumbled down the steps like a rag doll, dead.

Osama began shouting to his remaining guards kill these men and women who had caused havoc to his home for the second time.

Robin yelled again. "Clusterball!"

His men all closed ranks in a circle with their enemy surrounding them, each side waiting for an order, from their respective leaders. Robin gave a reserved nod and they moved, wielding their weapons to eradicate the remaining men in Osama's Palace.

Osama was beginning to feel a wave of smugness wash over him that despite everything he had survived. But a blow came from an unexpected source, an old man who wielded his sword clumsily into Osama's side. The injured man lay dying and was overlooked by his old servant Samir, who had stayed close to the palace ever since Robin and his gang had passed by his home earlier that day.

Samir said slowly and clearly. "This is for the death of my nephew, if it was not for you and your men he would be safe in Acre, now he is dead."

Osama looked up with pain filled eyes and Samir thrust the sword once more into Osama's body. Osama closed his eyes never to open them again. Samir looked down upon him suddenly filled with a remorse that he could not help. He was pulled from his guilty trance by Little Little John and the gang fled from Osama's Palace and from Haifa, not stopping until they reached Acre once more.


	36. Chapter 36

Part 36

The servants found themselves busied with helping Djaq and Marian patch up the minor injuries that the gang has sustained in the fight. Robin was not present having gone to their room. Eventually Marian found him there; she carried a bowl of warm water in her hand, with a small pouch with needle, thread and dressing. He was lying on the bed looking up to the ceiling and he turned when she closed the door behind her with her foot.

With a weary sigh she uttered. "Take off your shirt then."

He gingerly propped himself to a sitting position and did as she asked of him. Marian sat alongside him on the bed and dipped the clean cloth into the water and bathed the area.

"Ouch!" he said. "What? It stings."

"Or course it does." She replied patiently as she stitched up the wound.

He bit back a smile and said. "Do you remember the last time you stitched up my arm?"

She stopped her ministrations and frowned at him thinking hard.

"_A word of advice, your charms such as they are stopped working on me at least five years ago." She told him calmly but with an annoyed hint to her tone._

"_A challenge?" he asked with a smirk._

"_A statement," she clarified._

"_Ow!"_

"_That hurt?" She asked, showing no sign of remorse that she had inflicted the pain. Needing him to feel something of the hurt she had experienced when he had left for the Holy Land._

"_Yes!"_

"_Good. Just tying off."_

"_Kiss it better?...Argh!"_

"Marian?" he said gently. "Marian." Inside he reprimanded himself, perhaps it had been too soon to ask her if she remembered certain things about time they had spent together, good or bad. "Marian?"

Marian shook her head slightly and looked at him and said. "On that occasion you did not deserve for me to kiss anything better, this time…"

"I do?" he added hopefully, his eyes lighting up with the prospect of getting a kiss.

She looked down to her hands with the needle and thread between her forefinger and thumb and added. "And do you remember how you echoed my words of that day in the cave, of the bluntness of the needle, after that man Guy had stabbed me?"

"Yes," he returned with a small smile and a heavy sigh. After a pause he added. "Your arm?"

"Oh it is nothing…… a scratch." She replied brushing it off.

"Still, let me look after all it is only fair you tended to my war wound." Robin insisted firmly.

She looked for a moment as if she would refuse, but turned slightly so that her injured side was closest to him. He pulled back the torn clothing, she had been correct it was only a graze, the blood was congealed and it was already on its way to healing.

"You are not going to bathe it with clean water then?" she enquired, when he drew her dress back over it.

"You were right; it is only a graze which seems to need no medical intervention, even by me." He admitted, relief washing across his face that the injury she has sustained was extremely mild and harmless.

"Still," she mused softly. "You could kiss it better."

They gazed at each other; really there was no need for excuses to share a kiss. But they also knew deep within that this was not about kissing a scratch and a small arrow wound better. It was about the fact they both survived their latest and God willing last mission where they had to put their lives on the line.

Robin moved first and peeled back Marian's dress again to reveal the scratch. He leant down and gently kissed her shoulder and she took in a deep breath as his touch ignited the flame which never seemed to burn out between them. Raising his head he winked at her inviting her to return the favour. She picked up a strip of cloth in her hand before bending down to brush her lips carefully across his wound. Then she pulled back and wrapped the bandage securely over it, to keep it clean, that done she kissed it briefly again.

"There," she whispered. "All better."

His gaze when she met his eyes was intense and he shifted a little closer, pulling her towards him. His hand slid around her neck and his mouth met hers with abounding passion. Within moments he was laying her back onto the comfort of the mattress, where they lost themselves in each other. Neither heard Much yelling through the door that supper had been served, food was the last thing on their minds.


	37. Chapter 37

Thank you for your review.

Part 37

"Where are you two going?" Much asked a few days later.

Marian and Robin looked as if they were setting out for a whole days outing, together. He thought not for the first time how much he was missing Eve, and how he longed to be back with her in Bonchurch once again. But it would be several months travelling before that occurred and before that, Robin and Marian had to be ready to go home. He had let Robin leave England without him, and he was not going to leave the Holy Land until Robin and Marian were ready to walk alongside him and his fellow travelling companions.

"Emius," Robin replied.

"There? What are you going there for?" Much asked puzzled. "I mean that was where Marian…..Guy….Vasey…….Oh…. I get why you're going there."

"Want company?" asked Little John.

Robin shook his head and said. "This is something Marian and I need to do alone."

John nodded understandingly and Djaq asked. "Will you be back by nightfall?"

Marian looked to Robin who shrugged and said. "I do not know."

"Then take provisions in case you are not."

"And if you are not back the day after that we will come looking for you immediately." Much added, worry lines crossing his face.

"We will be back," Marian told him, with a reassuring rub on his shoulder with her hand.

"But if you are not?"

"Then come." Robin said, not to distraught his most loyal friend even more than he was.

"Did you pick up the thing in the market, Robin?" Will said, evasively as he joined in the conversation.

"Yes," was Robin's short reply but he smiled a secretive smile to Will at the same time.

--

Robin and Marian rode to Emius; they stopped short of the fallen city. In the heat of the day Emius was an empty shell looking for life once again and by night it was a deserted wasteland. They sat on their horses, and with the city in the distance just stared at it.

"Does it spark any….Does it?...Do you?" Robin asked gently.

This was a big step they were undertaking. Although he had visited this place when he first arrived back in the Holy Land, this time would be his last. He knew that all ghosts had to be laid to rest before they could move on with their lives. Not just Marian's pain but his as well.

Marian sighed heavily and whispered. "Yes."

Robin reached across the divide between the horses and covered her hand with his and replied. "We will work through this together, you and I."

She glanced at him and still in hushed tones answered simply. "Yes, together," as drops of moisture filled her eyes.


	38. Chapter 38

Thank you

Part 38

They rode in and dismounted, there was an eerie feel to the place. The breeze whipped through, as if it remembered the fateful day that Marian was about to force herself to relive in her mind. Robin tethered the horses and then stood beside Marian in the centre of the square by the water fountain.

"Where do you want to start?" he asked softly, taking her hand within his supportively.

"I do not know," she replied with a heavy sigh knowing that this was not going to be easy.

"What do you recall?" he asked, thinking that was the best place to start.

Marian shook her head and said. "I do not know if I recall anything….."

"Think," Robin whispered.

"I am thinking, it hurts…..I can see Vasey tying me up in the desert with my back along side yours and leaving me to die, but that was not here."

"No," Robin agreed. "It was not. Close by but not here. I……"

"What?" she asked looking at him, he was troubled and she squeezed the hand which held hers comfortingly. "What do you regret?"

"I did not say…"

"No but I can see. I know that you do regret something, something's that occurred that day."

"I regret saying that we should finish it now, if I had not we would have not spent more than two years apart."

"And you can not dwell on all the 'if only's'. Do not torture yourself for what had passed or what is to come, let us live for the here and now."

"As soon as you have gotten past this….yes." he agreed and they shared a wistful smile with each other.

Marian took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright," she began, her voice wavering, but the man at her side didn't and that was enough to give her the strength she needed to continue. "I can hear……I can see us riding fast across the desert floor towards this place……. Much's horse fell just over there, but Much was alright. We split up, it was then I realised I was unarmed and I went in this direction." And she pointed with her finger.

She pulled from Robin's grasp and his hand fell loosely to his side as she walked away. He stood still and allowed her the freedom she needed to remember all that has passed before. Marian walked to the building in which she had hidden from the fighting. She stayed there for a long time, until she heard a voice and it belonged to her.

"_Guy! Stop it's over Guy."_

"_Get out of the way!" Guy yelled at her,_

His face was still blank but she could feel his anger and she trembled at the memory as in the recollection they stood in the open where Robin now was.

"_All of this time I have been fighting for England do you think I am going to let you kill England?" She asked challengingly._

"_Marian! Get out of the way!" he yelled brandishing his sword in her direction but she sidestepped him. _

"_You will have to kill me first." She replied walking backwards._

"_No. We are going to get out of this. I am going to do this thing and have power beyond measure. And we will be together."_

_She laughed and replied. "I would rather die than be with you Guy of Gisborne."_

Marian shuddered, his name; now she knew his name. It did not spark a memory to his features; she just saw a faceless brooding image of a tall man in black leather still waving his sword in front of her. She looked out of the ruined building; Robin was where she had left him but he was now sitting on the edge of the broken fountain. She walked forward and was aware that this is where her 'demise' had occurred. Robin looked up at her but remained silent, just watching and waiting for the right time to intervene.

"_No," he breathed out on a whisper._

_But she carried on using the only weapon she had left; her secret relationship with Robin._

"_I'm going to marry Robin Hood……I love Robin Hood," she replied. Then with utter conviction added. "I love Robin Hood……Urgh!"_

Marian fell to her knees, she could almost feel the sword penetrate her body as her mind retold her the past. Robin stood but did not move to her side, rather watching, waiting and wishing that he could take away her emotional pain.

"_MARIAN!"_

Robin's voice echoed through both of their heads and as it did so the full image of Sir Guy of Gisborne filtrated through her mind and she saw him clearly, as if he was still there in front of her, right at that moment.

Marian began to shake, she felt Robin's arms encompass her body and she allowed the touch, for the moment but thought she might have to break free from his comfort before this memory was truly complete.


	39. Chapter 39

Thank you for your replies.

Part 39

"Shush……Shush….He's not here, not now. He's dead." Robin repeated over and over, as if having a second sight to the moment in her head and eventually it soothed them both.

They remained where they were as more memories came back to haunt her. Fragments of her conversations danced through the passages of her mind.

"_Will I die when it comes out?........Then we haven't got much time my darling"_

"_We have forever my love." Robin replied, doing his best not to cry as she lay dying in his arms._

"_I hope we have forever in heaven because we didn't have nearly enough time on earth."_

Marian moved slightly within Robin's arms and said in a voice which was barely more than a whisper. "Do you think I was sent back from heaven because we did not have enough time on earth?"

She felt Robin shrug within the confines of his embrace and he replied quietly back. "All I know, is that we have been given one more chance to be together, and I am not willing to risk losing that for anything in this world, or the next."

Robin felt her sigh but instead of replying she returned to a world of forgotten memories. His memories seemed as vivid as they had been they day after it had occurred.

Whispering into her hair he told her. "I kept my promise I carried on fighting for you until I believed it was over. I did not foresee we would have to kill Vasey here in the Holy Land though."

Marian seemed to snuggle closer to him as a reply and for him that was enough. As she remembered, he felt a strange sensation of his own memories fading away to lesser importance. A little voice in his head told him he did not have to cling to those last few moments of her life on earth, as she was living and right there in his arms. They would grow old together after all and he could let go of all that haunted him.

"_The last time we were dying we were getting married," she reminded him, her eyes brimming with the tears that he could not shed._

"_I can't remember," he managed. Thinking about anything except for what was happening was impossible for him right then._

As he soothed her in the present, she remembered how his hand running through her hair, cupping her face had comforted her as she lay 'dying' on the desert floor. It was the same but so different. Now she was alive, then they all believed she was no longer for the life her parents had brought her into. Marian had thought that as each moment of this fateful scene replayed itself in her head she would want to move away from the man who was her husband, but she found herself drawing nearer to him physically, emotionally and literally. His presence and closeness making her feel safe, wanted and protected for although she was independent, sometimes a woman needed to be comforted within the arms of the man she loved.


	40. Chapter 40

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Part 40

"What were you scared of, that you blocked this out of your life?" Robin asked, his breath a warm fan across her cheek.

"I do not know, perhaps that I had lost you," she murmured in return.

"Me you will never lose, even in death, my love." He assured her tenderly.

"I know, perhaps, perhaps it was…."

"Gisborne?" Robin suggested, in a tone which now held no contempt for the man who had been his enemy, in love and war.

"Yes. Remember when you said I saw something good in him and I said I had not remembered that yet?" she asked gently.

"I remember," he replied. He had no desire to speak of the man but at the same time knew it was important for Marian and so he went along with it.

"I think deep down there was a part of him, a softer side, a kinder nature which had been trampled on in his youth and in turn had become tangled and entwined with all the evil and corrupt things he did. He did save my life once with the help of Allan. I think he believed I could redeem all the bad he had done, but that does not count as love….I think he thought he loved me, but I do not truly believe he really knew what love was……. Maybe I was afraid of losing you again, perhaps deep down I knew exactly what Guy of Gisborne was capable of. Perhaps I feared you were already dead by his hand and I would have to live a lonely existence in England without you by my side. Maybe I was just protecting my heart.…. ……….Did he seem to regret 'killing' me?"

"I think he regretted it as soon as it happened. I did not pay him any attention once I saw you lying here. But after………..back in England it began to eat him up like a maggot feeding on a dead animal. It might have killed his mind but it did not kill his body as you know he was hung by King Richard's command."

Silence filled the air between them, it was not one which was quite comfortable and yet it was not unpleasant either. Robin let his thoughts drift to the last time he had held her here in this place while Marian's mind skipped off to a totally different scene or two.

"_You must prove your loyalty beyond all doubt." Gisborne said with emphasis of the necklace clutched in his hand._

"_How?"_

"_Marry me." he said, not asked. She could feel the imprint his fingers had on her arms as he grabbed her._

_-----_

"_Much as I hate Gisborne you have to marry him," Will told her, as utter confusion and panic surrounded them._

"_NO!"_

"_Wherever you go, wherever you go Robin will find you."_

-----

"I was recalling something Will said to me they day Vasey went missing from Nottingham. You did find me didn't you, although not in the context he meant?" Marian said.

"What did Will say?" he asked, with curiosity.

"That if I had to accept Guy's second proposal to stay alive that you would find me wherever I ended up."

"When I left England I was looking for something to take the emptiness away from my heart. I thought here would have the answers; little did I know what truth there was in that." He replied with a wry smile. Then he added with a long sigh, as it became his turn to reasons his actions. "Perhaps I had to come here to face my demons. Here now with you they do not seem so bad. I can begin to believe I can forget them and move on with my life…..With you by my side, I can face up to anything that life throws in my path."

This time it was Marian's turn to smile and she said still in the haven of his embrace. "I know exactly what you mean."

She kissed him lightly on the cheek then reverted back to remembering again and he finally at peace within his soul was happy to just hold her.

_-------_

"_I promised your father I would protect and look after you but it works both ways. I look after my bow because it protects and looks after me. Together we are stronger. So…..Marian will you marry me?"_

"_Robin. Of every man in the world you are the only one………..You are the only one who would propose over a fresh grave by comparing me to your weapon." She replied mildly amused by his comparison._

"_Is that a no?" He asked anxiously._

"_Who will give me away?"_

"_The King. I can ask the King."_

"_So we find Lardner, bring the King home, defeat the Sheriff and then get married."_

"_Sounds like a plan."_

"Plans sometimes go awry," Marian said, shifting to get the feeling back in her leg which had gone numb from sitting so long in the same position.

"Even the best laid ones." He agreed, stretching a little as he did spoke.

"I was thinking about the day we buried McLellan……"

"Oh," he answered his mouth curling up to a soft smile. "Were you?"

She looked up and him with a frown upon her face and asked. "Why?" Robin had that look about him, one which said he knew something she did not and it irritated her a little. "Robin?"

But he grinned all the more and she playfully swatted his arm. He stood and offered her his hand to haul her too to stand and said. "Let us eat, then I will tell you all about it."


	41. Chapter 41

Thank you for your reply.

Part 41

After refuelling their stomachs, with the good food that had been prepared and packed in Djaq's kitchens, Robin and Marian strolled round the vacant town hand in hand. This time they were feeling no fear of what had occurred in the past.

Robin paused in one street and looked thoughtful and saddened for a moment. He bent down in the sand and trailed his hand through the grit then sighed.

"What is it?" Marian asked.

"Carter, he died here." He simply said, wondering afterwards whether she even recalled Carter.

He felt her kneel down beside him and she laid her hand upon his shoulder and answered. "He was a good man. He helped save the King's life that day, if he had not rescued us in the desert things would have been a lot different, both here and in England."

Robin turned and looked at her. "Yes." He said. He stood, took her hand and they walked back to the water fountain where they stopped and he stood facing her. "Marian. Do you remember everything?" He asked seriously.

She looked thoughtful and replied. "Almost…….Why?"

Robin smiled and said. "Remember just before we ate I said…."

"Yes what? What were you going to say?"

Robin fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a silver ring it was made from two pieces of silver and intertwined as a symbol of their united hearts and souls. Robin took both of her hands within his still holding onto the ring and looked steadily into Marian's eyes.

He cleared his throat and then said in a husky whisper. "I, Robin take you again my beautiful Marian to be my lawful wedded wife. To have and to hold. For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or health, to love and to cherish, for evermore."

Robin's face flickered with a coy expression which was unlike him as he placed the ring on her finger. Marian bit her lip feeling nervous in front of this man she had loved for so long. Whom she was now able to remember from the first day they met when she was a small child, to the day he rode off to battle. From the day he returned and to the day she 'died' in his arms. From the day he walked back in her life as she sang to Saflyya to this present moment in time.

As a reminder of the words she had uttered before and as a new commitment to each other, she replied. "I, Marian, take you my beautiful Robin of Locksley to be my lawful wedded husband. I promise to love and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live and then in heaven, for even in death two hearts which beat as one can not be separated."

She looked wistful and he whispered as he closed the gap between them. "What?"

"Master of the bow," she whispered in response. "Champion of the poor."

"Where did you come up with those lines in the first place? Of course they do describe me well," he answered, a soft smile lifting up the corners of his mouth.

"When I was mourning your 'death,' while I was a prisoner of Vasey and Guy." She imparted. He drew her deeper into his arms and as his head bent to kiss her lips she just managed to breathe out. "Lord of my heart."

Heated magic flared between them as they kissed in the square, completely different from the kiss they shared as she lay injured. That had been a soft kiss of farewell, regret and bittersweet memory, of the past they had shared, and of the future they believed had been stolen from them. This was a kiss of promise for what was to come, for the admittance of their understanding and dealing with the past, to put it behind them in order to start afresh. But with the history that flowed between them shaping their lives in a positive way.

Robin pulled apart just enough to take Marian's hand and lead her to one of the half ruined houses where they had set their belongings up for the night. To share a night completely alone before they returned to England, for they would not have much peace or privacy on the long arduous journey back. He drew her down onto the makeshift bed of their cloaks barely letting her go from his touch. The heat buzzing between them was like hum of a bee on a lazy summer's afternoon as it searched for his nectar. Robin and Marian joined together in unconfined joy as their whole world shattered into a million shooting stars.


	42. Chapter 42

thank you for your reply.

Part 42

The door slammed, and Robin and Marian walked into the living area of Will and Djaq's home to find all the gang gathered there.

"You're back," Much said unnecessarily. "I was beginning to think we would have to search for the pair of you. You look…….You both look…."

"We look what?" asked Marian.

"Better." Said Allan smiling.

"Better?" this time it was Robin's turn to query the feedback they were receiving from the gang.

"You," said Little John pointing to Robin. "Are looking alive. We thought you would be dead inside forever before you left for the Holy Land. And you," he said pointing at Marian. "Are free from the things that held your mind captive."

"So you both look your old selves." Little Little John added cheerfully.

"Less of the old if you don't mind." Robin told him with a wink.

"No you're not that that old. I mean my dad's he's old…Ouch!" he replied as his father clipped his ear.

"You may be a man now but you are not too old for a clip around the ear." Little John told him, he did not need reminding of his age. Recently he felt his age was creeping up on him. This had become evident on their latest mission to free Robin and save Saladin from death. Time was certainly beginning to catch up with him and making him ache in his joints and muscles.

"Now I fear you will tell us it is time you headed home," Djaq uttered sadly, entering the conversation.

"It has been like old times having you stay here with us," Will put in.

"But you are staying here." Robin finished for them and they nodded. "I can not convince you to come back then?"

"No," Will replied. "My home is here now, with Djaq, with Saflyya."

Robin nodded, this was the response he had been expecting anyway, although it would have been good to have them come back to England.

"When will we be leaving?" asked Much, eager to be away and back home with Eve.

"There is a boat leaves in one week's time," Djaq informed them.

"A week! Surely there is something sooner than that. What are we to do with ourselves for another week?"

"I have things to do," Marian said. "I have to explain to the people of Acre why I am leaving."

"Oh, yes there is that, I hope they take it well, we have encountered enough strife while we have been here as it is" Much conceded.

"And we," Robin said to Much and the others. "Need to get a message to Saladin that is, if the news has not reached him already."

"Yes about that," Will interjected before Robin asked for quill, ink and paper. "A letter arrived this morning for Marian with Saladin's seal upon it."

He nipped out of the room and returned with the parchment giving it to Marian. She glanced at the front and noticed it was addressed to the Angel of Hope. With the whole gang looking on she slid her finger under the seal and opened it.

"Is it in Arabic? Do you want me to translate it?" asked Djaq.

Marian shook her head and answered. "No it has been written in Latin. I can understand it well."

"So what does it say?" asked Robin who stood patiently as near to her side as she allowed. She had stepped away instantly as he attempted to read the contents over her shoulder.

"He says," she told them looking up. "He has had word that his cousins have died by English hands, our hands and he extends his gratitude and reverberates what he told us in his chamber about protection."

"What does it say about you?" asked Robin questioningly.

"It says that he hopes I would stay but as our mission was successful understands that I will not." She concluded and folded the document in half.

Robin snatched it from her and read it for himself and said. "What ever he says I think we would be better to get out of here as soon as possible."

"But that is not until next week," Much inserted. "Djaq has already told us that and what if he really wants to stop the Angel of Hope leaving, but will permit us to go? What then?"

"A new plan," Robin told him confidently.

"What new plan?" asked Allan.

"Djaq will book us into the boat but we will leave the night before it sails on foot and then take the boat from the next port. It will not delay the whole journey that much."

"It would be safer," reasoned Will with a nod.

"Very well I take it everybody is happy with that then," Much finally agreed. Perhaps in the run of things one more week without Eve did not make that much difference in the least.


	43. Chapter 43

Part 43

Marian visited the Knights Hospitaller some days later. This time she went alone and had no fear of any danger as she walked though the streets. They greeted her with exuberance and she felt a pang of sadness in her heart. After conversing with one of the men who ran the refuge, he then arranged for everyone to be drawn close the following day so that Marian could speak to them all at once. People had gotten word of this gathering and had seemed to come from miles around, just for a chance to lay eyes on the Angel of Hope.

Marian stood in front of the crowd who had congregated in the courtyard of the refuge. Beside her stood an ex soldier of the refuge who was her interpreter. Her palms sweating she took a deep breath and addressed them.

"I asked for this meeting today so that I could thank you for welcoming me into your city, your country as if I was one of your own. I was gravely ill and tended by the finest physicians there are here, to whom I am eternally grateful. I spent many months recuperating after a near fatal injury, for which at one point I was declared dead. But I fought back and eventually returned to good health. Although I know I will never be quite as able as I used to be.

As I sat for many months taking in fresh air from the balcony room of my friends abode. It came to be that you all bestowed upon me the name, the Angel of Hope. For I gave you hope that even if circumstances look to be bleak and unsolvable there is always a way. When recovered I chose to help the people of Acre, it made me feel as if I was doing something worthwhile with my life. To wipe a fevered brow, provide food, clothing, or bring a smile to s crying child's face. Thank you for giving me that opportunity to live and work among you.

As a result of the trauma I experienced, a part of me chose to block out my life which went before. I have recently remembered my past and come to terms with all that haunted my dreams and my soul. I also discovered many things about myself including the fact that I was a married woman. A married woman's place is by her husband's side, especially if he is a good, kind, loving man, which my husband is.

Therefore I call you here to not only thank you for your kindness and hospitality but also to say goodbye, for my home is in England and that is where I must go, where I belong. You all will always have a special place in my heart and I will never forget you or what you mean to me."

There was a pregnant pause and someone in the crowd applauded her and she stood looking extremely awkward and blushing like a beetroot.

When she went to step down the senior Knight held his hand up for her to stay and added to the assembly. "We the Knights Hospitaller are opening a new wing of our refuge and it is to be named The Angel of Hope, lest we should forget what she brought to us."

As the crowd began to disperse Marian stepped down and was immediately commandeered by Robin and the gang.

"Come on," said Djaq. "If you do not want them following you all the way back to our house, let's go this way."

With Marian in the centre they scurried through the alleyways the long way round and eventually made it back to the sanctuary of the dwelling.

"Just do not go into the balcony room," added Much. "Some folk have gathered there for a final glimpse of you."

"Great speech by the way," added Allan.

"I was impressed," Little John told her.

"Me too," put in Little Little John.

"Beautiful," whispered Robin walking close to her and kissing her on the cheek. "But now we have work to do, we have to prepare to leave this place forever, and without God willing being seen."


	44. Chapter 44

Part 44

It was a significant moment when Robin, Marian, Little John, Allan, Much and Little Little John said their farewells to Djaq, Will and Saflyya. They hugged, they cried, but all too soon they had to part, perhaps forever, but never would be forgotten.

The gang crept through the streets of a city that would soon be waking and skirted past the port. There as Robin had predicted were a number of Saladin's men ready to intercept them and prevent Marian from leaving. The soldiers had probably been commanded to kill Robin and the others despite the promise, if they resisted handing the Angel of Hope back into Saladin's hands.

Much frowned he had been hoping that for once Robin was going to be wrong. This meant that they had a journey of several miles on foot before they could even consider purchasing horses to take them to the next port along the coast. Paying the waiting soldier too much attention he stumbled and fell. Little John hauled him to his feet but it was too late they had been spotted.

No one had much chance to do anything but what Robin shouted, as he yelled. "RUN!"

Robin with a look behind him noticed Marian lagging behind, he paused and took her by the hand pulling her along with him. Marian could hear the thumping of her heart, she felt breathless from exertion as well as from the thrill of the flight. Robin took another backward glance; the soldiers were closing in on him, Marian, Little John and his son. Much and Allan were just in sight ahead of him.

"In here," Robin whispered, loudly enough for them all to hear and dragged them down an alleyway.

"Dead end," Little Little John announced, fear in his voice as the feet of the men drew closer.

"Up!" declared Little John. First he hoisted Little Little John onto the roof, then Marian. Finally he gave Robin a leg up and then they heaved him to the roof too.

They ran across the flat rooftops, making better headway than they had on ground level, from up here they could even see Allan and Much steaming ahead and making for some stables.

"Horses, good idea," Little Little John panted as they finally stopped, looking down to the stables below, and Robin indicated to Much and Allan to make haste.

They slid back down to the ground and found Much and Allan leading the horses out.

"Wondered when you were going to catch up," Allan said.

"There are not enough," Little John replied looking at the four horses which had been made available for their use.

"This is all there were," put in Much.

"John, you take that one," Robin said pointing him to one of the horses. "Much, that one. Allan, you will have to have LJ with you. I will take Marian. Quick!" He added as the sound of the soldiers grew closer. "Come on lads let's go!"

They thundered off out of Acre, the horses' hooves sending clouds of dust in their enemies' faces, as dawn broke over the horizon. Marian had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she would never return there again.

The soldiers stopped, and despite their dust masks blinked furiously to clear the excess sand from their eyes. They watched the figures who rode off; and they glanced at each other and shook their heads. Saladin was not going to be pleased with the news that the English men had taken the Angel of Hope back to their homeland with them.


	45. Chapter 45

Thank you for reading and replying to my story. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Part 45

Several Months Later.

The Sheriff of Nottingham sat behind his desk as the weary travellers entered his quarters. He was unsure of how he was going to handle this. Robin and his friends had been away much longer than anticipated. While all was well within the estates of Locksley and Bonchurch, he feared that something out of his control had occurred to Robin whilst he had been away.

One look at the man in his thoughts told him that something indeed had occurred. No longer was the Earl of Huntingdon a shadow of his former self. Now he looked as if he embraced life and had put aside all the loss he felt for his wife. That was when the woman, no lady he corrected himself appeared at his side.

"Welcome back!" the Sheriff said with a warm hearty smile. "Bring some wine, then leave us" He added to a young serving boy.

"We brought him back, just as we set out to do," Much said proudly.

"I came back on my own accord, not yours," Robin said amused but somewhat dryly. To the Sheriff he said. "May I introduce my wife…Marian."

"Marian?" asked the Sheriff. "Wasn't that the name of your first wife……"

"I am his 'first' wife," She answered with a smile. "It appeared I was not dead after all."

The Sheriff smiled and nodded his head with humour of his own. "That explains a lot."

"What? What does it explain?" asked Much, confused. "Did you know something we did not when we left?"

"It explains why Robin of Locksley's spirit has lifted."

"Oh," Much said, wishing he had realised that and not asked a stupid question. Deciding to make conversation he went on to ask. "Bonchurch, is my estate well? I have sorely missed my lands and Eve of course. Mostly Eve in fact."

"Oh the matter of your estate Lord Much. I take it you have not been home yet and I would very much suggest that it is your next port of call. There might be more there than you bargained for as a homecoming committee."

"What?" asked Much baffled again. Turning to Robin and Marian he said. "You will both come with me won't you? I know you are eager to get to Locksley but I do not think I want to go home by myself."

Robin shared a look of amusement with Marian who replied. "Yes, if it means that much to you we will."

"Good and it does. What about you three?"

"I have work to do here?" Allan began, but the Sheriff waved his hand that he too should go to Bonchurch.

"Us, we will come," Little John told Much, speaking for himself and his son.

------

On their approach to Bonchurch they were sighted by a stable boy who raced all the way back to the main house. By the time the gang arrived, the entire household were waiting outside to welcome them back from the Holy Land.

Much broke into a run, to the entertainment of everyone else and flung himself into the arms of Eve.

"Shouldn't that have been the other way round?" Allan inquired. "I mean it is usually the lady who flings herself at the man?"

"Much is unique," Robin replied with a grin.

"Yeah, now that is true," Allan replied, grinning at the sight in front of him.

Slowly however, each man woman and child turned to stare, not at Much and his over enthusiastic embrace of Eve but of the lady who held the hand of Robin of Locksley.

"What's it feel like to be stared at so?" asked Little Little John who stood on the other side of Marian.

"I have become accustomed to it, with the whole Angel of Hope situation, but I admit, I do feel rather on show."

"As soon as they realise you're back and word has gotten round it will die down and some new scandal or rumour will become the centre for the gossips." Allan reassured her.

She smiled at him and shared a look with Robin that this would be so. Much finally released Eve and stated that there would be a welcoming home party in Bonchurch. Not only for his safe return but also for the miraculous return of Lady Marian, or rather Lady Locksley.

"There simple as that, they all know you have returned," Little John said, nudging Marian gently in the back.

"Simple being the operative word," Allan shook his head and muttered. "Simple as Much!"

"He means well," Robin answered with a smile.

Much beckoned them forward and after saying hello to Eve they all entered the house, whereupon the sound of wailing filled the air.

"What is that?" asked Much.

"Sounds like a baby to me," Little Little John replied.

"A baby? What would a baby be doing here?" Much asked, obviously flustered now and watched as Eve left his side.

She walked to a crib which was situated by the fireside and almost blended into the wall. There she gently scooped the infant into her arms and brought the babe across to them all.

"Well he has a fine pair of lungs on him," commented Robin. He peered through the swaddling to see a little screwed up face, angry because he was hungry and his mother had not fed him.

"Where has he come from? Where is his Mother? What is he doing here with us?" Much asked Eve and then without waiting for a reply he added to Robin. "How do you tell it is a boy without checking to see?"

Robin shrugged. "I don't know."

"Eve?" Much said, fixing his attention back on his wife for answers.

"Much this is our son. I named him Lawrence for my father."

"Son? I have a son?" he muttered as his eyes rolled closed and he fell to the floor in a faint.

Marian stepped over the inert body and began to coo at the baby and congratulate Eve, leaving Robin and John to try and get some life back into their friend. Some time after Much had recovered from the shock, Little John and his son took their leave along with Allan.

Robin and Marian stayed for supper but left when the pair of lovebirds before them saw nothing but each other. They walked back home leaving their horses in Much's stables, for a quiet return to Locksley, just as Robin said he wanted before he left many months earlier.

"I would not be surprised if there will soon be a playmate for Lawrence," Robin mused and reached for Marian's hand in the darkness.

"I know there will be," she returned lightly.

"How do you know there will be?" he enquired. "Much has only just returned home."

"I do not mean that. I mean……." She paused, searching for the right words to tell him.

Robin stopped her walking any further and circled her in his embrace. "What are you talking about Marian?" he asked softly his eyes searching hers for what she was really saying.

"Us, we will have a playmate for Lawrence. I was going to wait until our first night in Locksley to tell you…but it is almost dark now so……"

She watched him and he took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he digested the information she had told him. "Are you sure?" he asked, thinking it was a stupid question really.

"Yes I am sure, it has been a little over two months and I am…"

"Queasy," he finished for her. He thought that actually now he knew, the signs had been in front of him for a while. Robin had put it down to the lack of quality of food they had been eating on their journey back and the long days they spent travelling which had seemed to render her exhausted every evening. He pulled her closer and even in the darkness she could make out his Cheshire cat grin splattered across his face.

"I take it you are happy with my good news then?" she enquired, teasing him just a little.

Robin chuckled and nodded, lifting up and spinning her round before setting her on her feet to kiss her soundly.

"Come my love, my angel of hope," he said gently, feeling a new overwhelming love that she now carried a part of them both within her. "Let's go home."

The End


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